MOV  6  1911  *) 


BX  8526  .E3 

Eaton,   E.   L.   b.  1846. 

The  millennial  dawn  heresy 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2014 


https://archive.org/details/millennialdawnheOOeato 


The  Millennial 
Dawn  Heresy 


AN  EXAMINATION 

Of  Pastor  Charles  T.  Russell's  Teaching  Concerning  the  Pur- 
pose of  the  Second  Advent  and  the  Millennium,  as  set 
forth  in  His  Published  Books  and  Papers—"  The 
Divine  Plan  of  the  Ages."  and  Others 
of  Similar  Import. 


(Ettirittttalt : 

JENNINGS  AND  GRAHAM 

Nm»  $ork: 
EATON  AND  MAINS 


Copyright,  1911,  by 
Jennings  and  Graham. 


FOREWORD 


"While  Pastor  of  the  North  Avenue  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  Allegheny  City,  now  Pittsburgh, 
I  had  a  chance  to  study  Eussellism  at  close  range, 
for  that  city  was  at  that  time  the  home  of  Pastor 
Charles  T.  Russell.  He  frequently  assumed  what 
seemed  to  me  a  belligerent  attitude,  and  declared 
that  orthodox  ministers  dare  not  meet  the  issues 
which  he  championed.  Believing  his  whole  system 
erroneous,  and  that  it  ought  to  be  exposed,  especi- 
ally for  those  to  whom  it  most  strongly  appealed — 
persons  the  least  able  to  discover  its  errors — I  pro- 
posed to  him  that  we  publicly  debate  those  views 
which  he  was  putting  forth  in  opposition  to  the  cur- 
rent theological  opinions.  Six  debates  were  accord- 
ingly arranged,  and  these  took  place  in  Carnegie 
Music  Hall,  Allegheny  City,  in  the  Autumn  of  1903. 

These  debates  were  printed  in  the  city  papers, 
the  Pittsburgh  Gazette  containing  the  fullest  re- 
ports of  them.  At  the  close  these  were  gathered 
into  one  number  of  that  paper  of  which  a  very  large 
edition  was  printed  and  extensively  circulated.  I 
felt  from  the  beginning  that  these  reports — taken 
at  the  time  by  Mr.  Russell's  stenographer,  I  hav- 
ing no  chance  to  edit  my  part  of  the  debate — did 
iii 


FOREWORD 


not  fairly  represent  my  side  of  the  issue.  Since 
that  time  a  large  number  of  communications  have 
reached  me  from  different  parts  of  the  world,  asking 
for  literature  upon  the  Millennial  Dawn  heresies; 
it  is  therefore  a  pleasure  that  I  am  permitted,  under 
the  auspices  of  the  publishing  interests  of  my  own 
Church,  to  give  to  the  public  an  ungarbled  account 
of  my  reply  to  the  false  doctrines  and  extravagant 
inventions  published  by  the  "Watch  Tower  Bible 
and  Tract  Society,"  somewhat  more  vaguely  known 
as  "Millennial  Dawn." 

E.  L.  Eaton. 

Evatiston,  III.,  April,  1911. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PAGE 

I.    Principles  of  Biblical  Interpreta- 
tions  -  3 

II.  Immortality  and  Soul-Sleeping  -  25 

III.  This  Present  Gospel  Age  -      -  -  65 

IV.  The  Millennium  91 
V.  Probation  after  Death     -      -  -  127 


I 

INTERPRETATION 


"Take  heed  that  no  man  deceive  you." — Matt. 
24:4. 

"Declare  unto  us  the  parable  of  the  tares." — Matt. 
13:36. 

"Prophesy  according  to  the  analogy  of  faith." 
—Bom.  12:6. 

"No  prophecy  of  Scripture  is  of  any  private  in- 
terpretation."— 2  Peter  1:20. 


CHAPTER  I 


PRINCIPLES  OF  INTERPRETATION 

Millennial  Dawn  is  Founded  upon  False  and 
Unscriptural  Methods  of  Biblical  Inter- 
pretation 

Open  infidelity  is  not  making  much  headway.  It 
is  not  long  since  it  directed  its  assaults  upon  the 
Bible  and  denied  its  divine  authority.  That  was 
Robert  Ingersoll's  method.  But  it  is  not  doing 
that  now  to  any  great  extent.  To-day  it  often 
admits  the  Bible  to  be  the  Word  of  God,  and  then 
proceeds  to  evolve  doctrinal  variations  by  false 
systems  of  interpretation,  like  Mormonism,  Eddy- 
ism,  and  Millennial  Dawnism.  These  are  the  pres- 
ent-day tactics  of  those  who  would  discredit  the 
work  of  the  Church ;  and  the  effect  of  their  work  is 
to  plunge  honest  but  unskilled  people  either  into 
hopeless  infidelity,  or  to  bury  them  in  religious 
organizations  that  are  meaningless  and  pitiable. 

This  is  both  the  method  and  the  fruit  of  the 
Millennial  Dawn  Heresy.  We  can  render  no  bet- 
ter service  to  those  honest  folk  who  are  seeking 
after  the  truth  than  to  expose  these  false,  and 
what  we  believe  to  be  vicious,  methods  of  Scrip- 
3 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


tural  interpretation.  That  we  shall  undertake  to 
do  in  this  chapter. 

Millennial  Dawn  adopts  a  high-sounding  name 
and  makes  much  pretense  of  being  Christian;  but 
it  is  fraught  with  great  harm  in  many  ways. 
While  we  do  not  charge  it  with  being  a  direct 
and  outspoken  system  of  infidelity,  yet  we  do  say 
that  its  tendency  is  to  disturb  the  regular  work 
of  the  Church  in  every  community  where  it  can 
get  a  foothold;  to  unsettle  multitudes  of  well- 
meaning  people  and  to  withdraw  them  from 
spheres  of  active  usefulness  and  contentment;  to 
land  other  multitudes  into  infidelity ;  and  to  create 
in  all  its  votaries  a  feeling  that  there  is  little  need 
of  earnest  effort  to  escape  the  consequences  of 
sin,  since  the  opportunity  to  secure  salvation  is 
postponed  to  the  coming  age. 

It  is  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Protestantism  that  every  man  is  free  to  read  and 
interpret  the  Bible  for  himself ;  but  it  is  a  serious 
matter  for  one  to  assume  to  interpret  it  for  others. 
For  the  Bible  is  a  difficult  book  to  interpret;  and 
this  because  it  is  a  very  ancient  book,  a  book  filled 
with  Oriental  imagery  and  poetic  fancies,  a  book 
that  comes  to  us  in  foreign  tongues,  and  above 
all — a  spiritual  book.  It  deals  with  things  that 
do  not  lie  level  to  the  human  mind.  Therefore  it 
must  be  safeguarded  with  special  and  necessary 
laws  of  interpretation. 

No  one  has  a  right  to  invent  canons  of  Bibli- 
cal interpretation.  Nor  can  any  one  interpret  it 
4 


INTERPRETATION 


correctly  who  does  not  faithfully  follow  those 
principles  which  are  plainly  laid  down  in  the  Bible 
itself,  or  are  the  necessary  dicta  of  common  sense. 
We  shall  endeavor  to  show  in  this  chapter  that 
Millennial  Dawn  violates  both  common  sense  and 
the  "Word  of  God  by  its  false  method  of  interpre- 
tation. 

Let  us  now  carefully  consider  certain  laws  of 
interpretation  which  must  be  reverently  followed 
by  all  people  who  desire  to  arrive  at  the  truth. 
And  the  first  law  is — 

Interpret  Literally 

This  is  the  demand  of  common  sense.  Read 
the  Bible  just  as  you  read  any  other  book,  and 
understand  it  accordingly.  While  this  can  not 
always  be  done,  it  is  nevertheless  the  first  law  of 
interpretation.  It  must  be  observed  and  invoked 
to  protect  the  Bible  from  vagaries,  extravagancies, 
and  fanciful  interpretations.  The  author  of  Mil- 
lennial Dawn  tells  us  that  "in  a  parable  the  thing 
said  is  never  the  thing  that  is  meant,"  and  uses 
this  half  truth  in  the  nature  of  a  license  to  make 
the  parables  mean  anything  under  the  sun  to  help 
out  its  system.  Thus  by  disregarding  this  whole- 
some and  necessaiy  principle  of  common  sense — ■ 
to  interpret  literally  whenever  a  fair  construction 
requires  it — he  has  used  certain  portions  of  the 
Scriptures  to  the  support  of  a  system  which  is 
made  to  stand  out  in  open  antagonism  to  practi- 
cally every  New  Testament  doctrine. 

5 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


Where  the  language  is  literal  the  interpretation 
must  generally  be  literal.  Where  ' '  the  thing  said ' ' 
is  literal,  "the  thing  meant"  must  be  as  apparent 
as  a  literal  statement,  or  the  parable  utterly  fails 
to  accomplish  the  thing  intended.  It  violates  the 
spirit  and  purpose  of  a  parable  to  give  it  strained, 
far-fetched,  and  inobvious  interpretations.  Take 
the  parable  of  the  Good  Samaritan.  It  means 
exactly  what  it  says,  and  can  have  no  other  mean- 
ing; and  its  spiritual  application  is  so  obvious 
that  it  needs  no  explanation.  The  Good  Samaritan 
did  what  he  did  because  he  had  a  kind  and  neigh- 
borly spirit;  and  it  is  precisely  that  which  our 
Lord  sought  to  illustrate  and  enforce  by  this  great 
parable. 

In  like  manner  the  story  of  the  Rich  Man  and 
Lazarus.  It  means  exactly  what  it  says.  It  gives 
us  the  history  of  two  men  in  this  world,  one  a 
saint,  the  other  a  sinner.  Then  in  the  most  direct 
and  literal  way  it  shows  us  the  results  in  the  life 
to  come  of  the  life  which  each  lived  here.  And 
that  is  the  chief  purpose  for  which  this  remark- 
able story  was  told.  To  obscure  or  deflect  its 
plain  purport  to  some  far-fetched  and  foreign 
object  is  to  juggle  with  the  Word  of  God. 

But  a  vast  portion  of  the  Word  of  God  can 
not  be  interpreted  literally  because  the  text 
itself  is  not  literal.  And  that  fact  brings  us 
to  the  second  law  of  Biblical  interpretation, 
which  is — 

6 


INTERPRETATION 


Interpret  the  Figurative  by  the  Literal 

The  Bible  is  an  Oriental  book.  The  divine 
and  the  human  elements  are  both  there,  but  the 
human  element  is  Oriental.  That  makes  it  a  poet- 
ical book,  abounding  in  figures  of  speech,  a  pictorial 
book,  often  gorgeous  with  Oriental  imagery.  And 
to  interpret  the  portions  that  are  manifestly  figur- 
ative and  pictorial  as  though  they  were  intended 
for  literal  statements  would  be  absurd.  So,  in 
order  to  get  exactly  what  the  Spirit  intended  to 
reveal,  it  is  necessary  to  find  the  law  of  interpre- 
tation which  applies  to  figurative  and  pictorial 
writing.  We  shall  not  have  to  search  far  nor  in 
vain.  We  have  but  to  inquire,  What  was  the 
method  of  the  sacred  writers  themselves? 

The  first  noted  Biblical  interpreter  was  Joseph. 
He  was  called  upon  to  interpret  the  dreams  of 
the  king  of  Egypt.  In  his  dream  (Gen.  41)  the 
king  saw  seven  fat  kine  come  out  of  the  river; 
he  also  saw  seven  lean  kine.  He  saw  seven  full 
ears  of  corn;  also  seven  thin  ears  of  corn.  These 
dreams  were  pictorial,  figurative;  what  did  they 
mean?  Asking  wisdom  from  God,  Joseph  tells  the 
king  what  the  dreams  mean.  The  seven  fat  kine 
(figure)  mean  seven  years  of  plenty  (literal).  The 
seven  lean  kine  (figure)  mean  seven  years  of  fam- 
ine (literal).  And  so  with  the  seven  full  and  the 
seven  thin  ears  of  corn.  Here  we  discover  the 
divine  law  of  interpretation.  It  is  also  the  method 
7 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


of  common  sense.  No  other  way  could  possibly 
be  pursued  if  one  is  seeking  truth. 

The  next  great  Biblical  interpreter  was  Daniel. 
In  a  similar  way  he  interpreted  king  Nebuchad- 
nezzar's dream  of  the  metallic  image  with  its 
golden  head,  silver  breast  and  arms,  brass  belly 
and  thighs,  and  iron  legs.  The  image  was  a  figure, 
a  picture;  what  did  it  mean?  Daniel  tells  him: 
"Thou,  0  king,  art  this  head  of  gold."  That  is, 
the  head  of  gold  (figure)  means  the  king  of  Baby- 
lon, or  the  kingdom  over  which  he  reigns  (literal). 
Here  precisely  the  same  method  is  employed  by 
Daniel  that  was  observed  by  Joseph,  which  is,  to 
interpret  the  figurative  by  the  literal. 

Observe  the  method  followed  by  our  Lord  in 
interpreting  His  parables.  Of  the  fifty  parables 
which  He  gave,  His  disciples  asked  Him  to  inter- 
pret two — the  Parable  of  the  Sower,  and  that  of 
the  Wheat  and  the  Tares ;  and  in  both  instances  He 
interpreted  these  figurative  stories  by  literal  state- 
ments. The  latter  parable  (Matt.  13:24-30)  He 
interpreted  as  follows  (v.  36-43):  "The  field  is 
the  world;  the  good  seed  are  the  children  of  the 
kingdom ;  the  tares  are  the  children  of  the 
wicked  one,"  etc.  This  is  sufficient  to  show  His 
method. 

In  his  great  pentecostal  sermon  (Acts  2 : 16  and 
onward)  Peter  quotes  a  most  graphic  prophecy  of 
Joel,  a  passage  abounding  in  flaming  and  lurid 
symbolisms,  including  dreams,  visions,  wonders  in 
heaven,  vapor,  smoke,  sun  darkened,  moon  turned 
8 


INTERPRETATION 


to  blood,  etc.  But  in  his  interpretation  of  this 
famous  passage  he  employs  nothing  but  plain, 
literal  statements,  not  indulging  in  a  single  figure. 
This  which  you  see  is  that  which  the  prophet 
wrote,  is  the  amount  of  his  solemn  and  literal 
affirmation. 

Paul  pursued  the  same  course,  always  inter- 
preting the  figurative  by  the  literal.  Notice  an 
instance  in  Rom.  14 : 10-12,  where,  after  quoting  a 
poetical  passage  from  Isaiah  45 : 23,  about  every 
knee  bowing  and  every  tongue  confessing  to  God, 
he  explains  it  as  meaning  that  we  shall  all  stand 
before  the  judgment  seat  at  last  to  be  judged. 
Many  similar  instances  could  be  found  in  Paul's 
writings,  showing  that  it  was  his  invariable  method 
of  interpreting  Scripture  to  use  plain  and  literal 
statements  to  explain  figurative  passages. 

And  practically  the  whole  book  of  Hebrews  is 
devoted  to  a  similar  purpose — explaining  the 
Hebrew  system  with  its  types  and  shadows,  its 
ordinances  and  ceremonies,  its  flaming  ritual  and 
lofty  symbolisms — all  by  simple,  plain,  and  literal 
speech.  No  sacred  writer  or  speaker,  in  any  single 
instance,  ever  departed  from  this  divinely  estab- 
lished rule  of  interpretation. 

One  of  the  chief  errors  for  which  Millennial 
Dawn  will  have  to  answer  is  the  flagrant  violation 
of  this  simple  and  necessary  law.  It  founds  its 
whole  structure  upon  the  affirmation  that  there  is  to 
be  a  Millennium — a  personal  reign  of  Jesus  Christ 
upon  this  earth  for  a  period  of  one  thousand  years, 
9 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 

to  begin  at  the  time  of  the  Second  Advent.  Now, 
where  does  Millennial  Dawn  get  Scripture  author- 
ity for  that  teaching?  Is  it  the  twentieth  chapter 
of  Revelation?  It  is  found  nowhere  else  in  the 
Bible ;  and  we  shall  show  in  chapter  fourth  of  this 
book  that  it  is  not  even  in  Revelation.  But  the 
thing  which  we  wish  to  show  just  now  is  that  in 
probably  the  most  figurative  and  pictorial  book  in 
all  the  Bible,  and  in  one  of  the  most  dramatic 
chapters  of  that  book,  Millennial  Dawn  finds  a 
passage  (Rev.  20:1-11)  which  speaks  of  a  certain 
special  class  of  saints  "living  and  reigning  with 
Christ  a  thousand  years."  And  this  high-wrought 
and  figurative  book  and  chapter  are  made  to  in- 
terpret all  the  plain,  literal  statements  in  the  Bible, 
instead  of  using  these  plain  and  literal  statements 
to  interpret  this  chapter.  By  this  unfair  and  un- 
scriptural  method  every  fragment  of  the  Word  of 
God  is  tortured  into  submission  to  this  one  chap- 
ter! The  divine  method  is  reversed  and  dishon- 
ored, and  everywhere  and  always  the  plain  and 
literal  portions  of  the  Scripture  are  interpreted 
by  the  figurative.  That  is  Millennial  Dawnism. 
By  reversing  the  divine  law  of  interpretation, 
Millennial  Dawn  has  managed  to  build  up  a  most 
false,  extravagant,  and  fantastic  system  of  doc- 
trines, and  is  industriously  trying  to  foist  them 
upon  the  world  as  a  substitute  for  the  well-nigh 
universally  accepted  truths  of  Christianity.  Put- 
ting one  man's  opinion  over  against  millions  of 
scholarly  and  godly  men,  and  then  founding  that 
10 


INTERPRETATION 


opinion  upon  a  false  and  crude  principle  of  inter- 
pretation— such  is  the  propaganda  that  is  now 
undertaken  to  enlighten  the  world  under  the  name 
of  Millennial  Dawn! 

A  third  important  canon  of  interpretation,  laid 
down  in  the  Scriptures  as  a  divine  law,  is  this — 

Interpret  by  the  Analogy  op  Faith 

This  law  of  Biblical  interpretation  is  stated  by 
Paul  (Rom.  12:  6)  in  these  words:  "Let  him  that 
prophesies  phophesy  according  to  the  analogy  of 
faith."  To  prophesy  in  the  Old  Testament  sense 
is  generally  to  foretell  events.  To  prophesy  in  the 
New  Testament  sense  is  to  teach  or  to  preach. 
And  Paul's  dictum  therefore  means  that  we  must 
prophesy  or  teach  always  in  harmony  with  the 
analogy  of  faith.  The  analogy  of  faith  means  the 
general  drift  or  teaching  of  Scripture  upon  any 
subject.  And  in  order  faithfully  to  apply  Paul's 
principle  we  must  never  allow  one  or  two  or  even 
three  texts  of  Scripture  to  stand  out  against  the 
general  testimony  or  teaching  of  the  "Word  of  God 
Upon  the  subject  under  consideration.  One,  or 
even  few,  texts  can  not  be  allowed  to  control  the 
meaning  of  many.  The  analogy  of  faith  is  the 
final  standard  of  appeal  in  all  such  instances. 
Peter  affirms  the  same  doctrine  when  he  says 
(2  Pet.  1:20),  "No  prophecy  of  Scripture  is  of 
any  private  interpretation,"  ("special  interpre- 
tation," say  the  Rev.  Ver.  and  Am.  Rev.).  This  is 
11 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


precisely  the  doctrine  of  Paul,  and  places  clearly 
before  us  the  divine  law  which  affirms  that  we 
must  always  interpret  according  to  the  analogy  of 
faith.  Notice  the  application  of  this  law  in  the 
24th  chapter  of  Joshua.  Joshua  said,  "As  for  me 
and  my  house  we  will  serve  the  Lord;"  to  which 
the  people  made  answer,  ""We  also  will  serve  the 
Lord;"  then  Joshua  answered,  "Ye  can  not  serve 
the  Lord,  for  He  is  a  holy  God,  He  is  a  jealous  God. 
He  will  not  forgive  your  transgressions  nor  your 
sins."  Is  that  true  in  any  literal  sense?  Did 
Joshua  tell  Israel  the  truth  when  he  said  that  they 
could  not  serve  Jehovah  because  He  is  a  holy  God  ? 
No,  it  is  not  true ;  and  for  one  to  take  that  text  and 
disconnect  it  from  its  setting,  and  then  insist  that 
the  Bible  teaches  that  men  can  not  serve  God  be- 
cause He  is  a  holy  God,  would  violate  the  analogy 
of  faith  and  destroy  the  meaning  of  the  entire 
Bible.  Yet  exactly  that  it  is  to  refuse  to  observe 
the  principle  here  discussed  as  a  divine  law  of 
interpretation — namely,  to  interpret  according  to 
the  analogy  of  faith.  The  uniform  teaching  of 
the  Scripture  is  that  man,  though  sinful,  can 
worship  a  holy  God  upon  one  condition — that  he 
turn  away  from  sin.  And  exactly  that  is  what 
Joshua  meant,  though  he  did  not  incorporate  the 
full  statement  of  it  in  this  verse. 

Millennial  Dawn  violates  this  divine  law  in 
the  most  flagrant  manner,  as  we  will  point  out  in 
chapter  three  and  elsewhere.    It  finds  here  and 
there  a  single  passage  of  Scripture,  takes  it  out 
12 


INTERPRETATION 


of  its  natural  setting,  disjoints  it  from  the  con- 
text, wrests  and  tortures  it  out  of  all  recognition, 
and  by  that  means  manages  to  make  a  show  of 
Scriptural  support  for  its  doctrinal  fictions  and 
vagaries.  "What  should  be  thought  of  one  who 
refuses  to  obey  this  divine  injunction  twice  laid 
down  in  the  New  Testament,  and  continues  to 
disregard  the  analogy  of  faith  in  his  interpreta- 
tion? Is  not  that  a  dangerous  method  of  treat- 
ing the  Sacred  Scriptures?  And  is  one  who  does 
that  fit  to  be  a  teacher  of  men  in  moral  and  spirit- 
ual matters?  Is  it  safe  to  follow  such  a  teacher 
of  doctrines?  If  it  can  be  shown  that  Millennial 
Dawn  errs  grievously  in  this  matter,  would  not 
that  fact  forfeit  its  right  to  pose  as  the  leader 
of  men  in  religious  matters? 

Another  and  very  important  principle  of  in- 
terpretation recognized  by  fair-minded  and  schol- 
arly men  everywhere — is  this: 

Consider  the  Viewpoint  op  the  Writer 

There  are  thirty-six  or  more  writers  whose  work 
is  included  in  the  volume  called  the  Holy  Bible. 
These  men  were  widely  separated  both  in  time 
and  place.  The  earlier  writers  generally  saw 
truth  more  dimly  and  stated  it  more  vaguely  than 
did  the  later  writers.  The  revelation  is  progres- 
sive. The  vision  grows  clearer  as  the  ages  ad- 
vance. In  order  to  get  the  full  meaning  of  their 
message  we  must  consider  these  persons — their 
13 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


time,  their  place,  their  aim,  their  knowledge,  and 
their  limitations.  Not  one  of  them  told  all  the 
truth.  Each  one  makes  a  fragmentary  contribu- 
tion to  the  whole.  No  one  is  under  obligation  to 
tell  all  the  truth.  Even  Jesus  did  not  tell  all  the 
truth.  No  one  ever  agrees  to  do  that  except  wit- 
nesses in  a  court  of  law,  and  their  signal  failure 
to  keep  their  pledge  is  one  of  the  grim  humors  of 
the  world. 

If  we  consider  the  Gospel  writers,  we  shall  see 
that  they  wrote  from  different  standpoints,  for 
different  peoples,  and  for  different  purposes.  How 
utterly  divergent  are  the  conceptions  of  Matthew, 
Peter,  and  James  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  John 
and  Paul  on  the  other,  as  to  the  real  character  of 
Christ's  doctrine  and  kingdom.  To  the  first  group 
the  Church  is  a  Jewish  institution,  and  Christian- 
ity a  reformed  Judaism;  to  Paul  and  John  it  is 
not  a  Judaism  at  all,  but  a  new  thing  under  the 
sun.  To  Matthew  and  Peter  it  is  a  sort  of  a  mil- 
lennial kingdom,  such  as  the  Jews  had  long  been 
looking  for;  that  it  was  soon  to  be  enthroned  in 
this  world,  with  its  capital  at  Jerusalem,  and  with 
Christ  upon  its  throne.  To  Paul  and  John  it  is 
not  in  any  sense  an  earthly  kingdom,  but  a  spirit- 
ual one,  having  its  throne  in  the  hearts  of  those 
who  love  God. 

Thus  we  have  the  two  concepts  of  the  kingdom. 
Is  Christianity  a  reformed  Judaism,  or  is  it  a  new 
kingdom  altogether?  Is  Christ  to  be  enthroned  in 
Jerusalem,  or  is  He  now  enthroned  in  the  hearts 
14 


INTERPRETATION 


of  those  who  love  Him?  If  one  rejects  Paul  and 
John's  interpretation  of  the  kingdom,  and  insists 
that  it  is  but  a  reformed  Judaism,  he  will  be  a 
Jewish  Christian.  He  will  very  naturally  fall 
in  with  Millennium,  soul-sleeping,  Saturday-keep- 
ing, immediate-second-coming,  and  world-going-to- 
smash  theories  and  doctrines;  but  if  he  takes  the 
view  of  Christianity  that  forbids  regarding  it  as  a 
Judaism  in  any  sense  but  a  spiritual  system  of 
truth  and  doctrine  that  proposes  to  enthrone  Jesus 
Christ  in  love  in  every  human  heart,  then  his 
teaching  will  be  something  altogether  different. 
He  will  believe  that  Christ  is  now  enthroned  in 
the  hearts  of  those  who  love  Him,  and  that  is  the 
only  way  in  which  He  desires  to  reign  anywhere. 

Take  the  book  of  Matthew.  It  was  written  as 
an  appeal  to  the  Jews — to  set  before  them  the 
Messianic  claim,  and  to  show  how  Jesus  fulfilled 
those  expectations;  to  present  the  gospel  to  the 
Jewish  people  in  such  a  way  that  they  would  see 
that  our  Lord's  person  and  history  fulfilled  the 
prophecies  of  the  Messiah.  It  is  an  inspired  book, 
and  gloriously  did  it  fulfill  its  purpose  and  accom- 
plish its  mission.  But  it  is  not  sufficient  for  the 
Gentile  world.  It  was  not  primarily  intended  for 
them;  and  if  we  had  no  other  Gospel  but  that  of 
Matthew  we  would  all  be  Jewish  Christians,  think- 
ing of  Christianity  as  a  renovated  Judaism.  Mat- 
thew gives  us  thirty  parables,  and  practically  all 
of  them  are  about  the  kingdom,  and  are  introduced 
with  the  formula,  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
15 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


like,"  etc.  He  is  the  only  Bible  writer  who  uses 
the  term,  "kingdom  of  heaven;"  all  the  rest  say 
"kingdom  of  God."  Surely  those  Jewish  Chris- 
tians had  quite  a  different  concept  of  the  kingdom 
than  is  generally  held  by  broad-minded  Christians 
of  the  later  ages.  Matthew  thinks  of  Jesus  as  a 
King;  His  capital  is  Jerusalem;  His  judgment 
seat  is  a  throne;  and  the  paraphernalia  of  a  royal 
system  is  implied. 

When  we  come  to  Paul  and  John,  the  kingdom 
has  well-nigh  vanished.  Doctrines,  experiences, 
and  personal  character  are  pressed  to  the  fore. 
Not  so  much  prophecies  of  the  coming  kingdom 
as  the  indwelling  of  the  living  King.  Where  in 
Matthew,  Mark,  or  Luke  do  we  find  the  doctrine 
of  the  Divine  Sonship  as  we  find  it  in  Paul  and 
John?  Or  the  doctrine  of  eternal  life?  Or  the 
doctrine  of  sin  ?  Or  pardon  by  an  atonement  ?  Or 
justification  by  faith?  Or  regeneration?  Or  the 
witness  of  the  Spirit?  Or  of  adoption?  Or  of 
sanctification ?  Or  the  resurrection?  Or  glori- 
fication ?  All  of  these  doctrines  are  found  in  Paul 
and  John;  but  only  dimly  foreshadowed  in  the 
Synoptic  Gospels.  Christianity  is  not  law,  but 
life ;  not  an  organization  nor  an  institution,  either 
ecclesiastical  or  national,  but  doctrinal  truth  and 
heavenly  light  in  the  souls  of  men.  And  since  the 
days  of  the  apostles  Christianity  has  generally 
been  interpreted  from  the  doctrinal  and  spiritual 
standpoint  of  Paul  and  John.  To  reverse  that 
order  is  to  turn  back  to  Judaism.  For  one  now  to 
16 


INTERPRETATION 


try  to  foist  any  system  of  Judaism  or  Millennialism 
upon  the  enlightened  Church  is  about  as  stupid 
as  to  array  the  book  of  Ecclesiastes  against  the 
doctrine  of  regeneration  or  the  natural  immortality 
of  the  soul  as  stated  in  the  New  Testament.  Yet 
practically  that  those  people  do  who  forever  ignore 
John  and  Paul  as  the  highest  exponents  of  the 
system  Jesus  taught. 

When  we  come  to  Luke's  Gospel  the  scene  shifts 
again.  Here  is  a  gospel  writer  who  is  about  as 
oblivious  to  the  kingdom,  at  least  to  any  Messianic 
kingdom,  as  is  John.  Institutions  do  not  appeal 
to  him.  Organizations  have  no  charm  for  him. 
Nations  and  kingdoms  are  not  in  his  thought,  but 
individuals,  persons,  character — that  is  his  mes- 
sage. We  have  thirty-six  parables  in  Luke,  and 
almost  none  of  them  have  any  reference  to  the 
kingdom.  They  are  not  introduced  with  the  for- 
mula which  Matthew  employs.  They  are  character 
studies,  every  one  of  them.  This  can  not  be  said 
of  any  of  Matthew's  parables,  nor  those  of  Mark, 
generally.  But  every  person,  story,  or  parable  in 
Luke  is  a  character  study.  And  in  his  plan  all 
this  conspires  to  reach  its  climax  in  Jesus,  the  per- 
fect man — man  at  high-water  mark!  It  is  both 
stupid  and  impertinent  to  attach  to  Luke's  para- 
bles, national,  institutional,  or  kingdom  meanings, 
when  they  were  selected  from  the  Master's  lips 
to  delineate  character,  and  are  never  employed 
for  any  other  purpose.  Yet  Millennial  Dawn  has 
committed  that  savage  surgery  upon  one  of  the 

2  17 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


remarkable  stories  in  Luke's  Gospel — the  story  of 
the  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus.  Oblivious  to  the  awful 
moral  import  of  these  two  men's  personal  history 
and  character,  it  has  torn  them  from  their  natural 
place  and  meaning  and  compelled  them  to  stand 
as  representatives  of  nations!  And  all  that  in 
Luke!  One  capable  of  that  has  no  conception  of 
the  purpose  for  which  Luke  wrote. 

Which  are  the  most  well-known  and  popular 
of  all  the  parables  and  stories  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment ?  Nearly  every  one  would  answer,  The  Good 
Samaritan,  The  Prodigal  Son,  The  Rich  Man  and 
Lazarus,  The  Importunate  Widow.  Why  are  these 
parables  and  stories  universally  popular  ?  Because 
they  delineate  persons  and  character.  Why  are 
they  all  in  Luke  and  nowhere  else?  For  exactly 
the  same  reason.  Yet  Millennial  Dawn  would  filch 
these  great  studies  in  character  from  us  and  com- 
pel them  to  do  treadmill  duty  in  support  of  its 
manufactured  institution  which  it  calls  Millen- 
nium. We  resent  it  and  characterize  the  perform- 
ance as  ecclesiastical  jugglery. 

We  have  endeavored  to  draw  attention  in  this 
chapter  to  some  of  those  fundamental  principles 
of  Biblical  interpretation  which  have  been  recog- 
nized by  sound  scholarship  the  world  over.  Who- 
ever is  ignorant  of  them  disregards  them,  or  pro- 
ceeds to  interpret  the  Word  of  God  in  flagrant  defi- 
ance of  them,  can  never  arrive  at  the  truth.  His 
system  will  be  man-made,  grotesque,  anti-Chris- 
tian ;  and  he  will  generally  proceed  to  do  what  the 
18 


INTERPRETATION 


Mormons,  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  the  author  of 
Millennial  Dawn  have  done — set  up  the  claim  of 
inspiration  or  of  special  divine  illumination  from 
whose  dicta  there  is  no  appeal.  By  such  means 
an  ingenious  man  can  manufacture  almost  any 
kind  of  a  system. 

Plundering  Bible  Prophecies 

"We  have  noticed  the  tendency  of  all  Millen- 
nialists  to  plunder  the  Bible,  and  especially  the 
prophecies  of  the  spread  and  triumph  of  the  gos- 
pel, and  the  reign  of  the  Messiah.  They  appro- 
priate these  to  their  Millennium.  We  protest 
against  such  treatment  of  the  Holy  Book.  A  noted 
Millennialist  of  New  York  claims  all  the  glowing 
descriptions  of  Messiah's  kingdom  and  reign  as 
having  reference  only  to  the  Millennium.  What 
an  outrage  to  take  a  scoop  and  shovel  fifty-one 
chapters  of  Old  Testament  phophecy  over  into  the 
Millennium,  and  to  deny  that  they  have  any  ap- 
plication to  the  present  Gospel  Age ! 

That  is  certainly  bad  enough,  but  it  is  petty 
larceny  compared  with  the  performance  of  Millen- 
nial Dawn.  This  institution  lias  taken  practically 
the  entire  Bible  as  having  been  written  only  for  its 
pet  hobby.  It  begins  with  Adam,  and  insists  that 
about  everything  that  has  been  said  or  done  since 
is  a  part  of  the  great  scheme  of  the  Almighty  to  get 
the  entire  human  family  over  into  the  Millennium. 
Nothing  else  is  worth  thinking  about  or  striving 
19 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


for.  The  Millennium  monopolizes  every  page  of 
the  Bible,  every  event  of  history,  every  prophecy 
of  Scripture,  every  thought  of  the  race.  All  the 
radiant  prophecies  of  the  Bible  can  be  fulfilled 
only  in  the  Millennium.  Prophetic  utterances 
about  the  glory  of  the  Church,  the  destruction  of 
national  vices,  and  the  reign  of  righteousness  can 
come  to  fruition  only  in  the  Millennium.  We  char- 
acterize such  views  as  unscriptural,  uncritical,  and 
untrue.  Thus  to  wrest  the  Bible  from  its  true 
meaning  abuses  and  dishonors  the  Word  of  God. 

Matthew  quoted  the  Old  Testament  sixty-five 
times  to  prove  to  the  Jews  that  Jesus  was  the  long- 
promised  Messiah.  Paul  frequently  quoted  from 
the  prophecies  for  a  similar  purpose,  as  well  as  to 
show  that  while  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God 
to  the  people  of  his  day  he  was  fulfilling  those 
very  prophecies.  This  was  especially  true  in  all 
his  sermons  to  Jewish  audiences.  Paul  evidently 
believed  that  the  utterances  of  the  Hebrew  proph- 
ets were  intended  to  apply  to  this  Gospel  Age,  and 
not  to  some  future  Millennium.  The  gospel  of  the 
kingdom  began  to  be  preached  at  Pentecost  by  the 
Apostles;  and  from  that  forward  they  constantly 
quote  the  utterances  of  the  Prophets  as  descriptive 
of  their  age  and  work.  Besides  scores  of  allusions 
to  these  prophetic  utterances,  we  have  carefully 
noted  sixty  of  these  quotations,  beginning  with 
that  taken  by  Peter  from  Joel  as  his  Pentecostal 
text. 

These  prophecies,  so  understood  by  the  inspired 
20 


INTERPRETATION 


Apostles,  make  it  certain  that  they  apply  to  this 
Gospel  Age,  and  have  no  reference  to  any  sup- 
posed Millennial  Age  to  succeed  this.  That  was 
clearly  their  understanding;  and  we  resent  the 
constant  iteration  that  these  prophecies  were  in- 
tended for  the  Millennium  and  can  be  fulfilled 
only  in  that  age.  Thus  to  divert  them  from  their 
real  meaning  is  utterly  to  violate  every  true  prin- 
ciple of  interpretation. 


2; 


II 

IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL- 
SLEEPING 


"  0  listen,  man! 
A  voice  within  us  speaks  the  startling  word — 
'Man,  thou  shalt  never  die!'  celestial  voices 
Hymn  it  round  our  souls;  according  harps 
By  angel  fingers  touched  when  the  mild  stars 
Of  morning  sang  together,  sound  forth  still 
The  song  of  our  great  immortality. 
Thick-clustering  orbs,  and  this  our  fair  domain, 
The  tall,  dark  mountains  and  the  deep-toned  seas 
All  join  in  the  solemn,  universal  song." 

— Dana. 


CHAPTER  II 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 

Millennial  Dawn  Practically  Denies  the  Ex- 
istence of  the  Human  Soul  as  an  Organism 
Distinct  from  the  Body  ;  Utterly  Denies  Its 
Immortality,  and  Propagates  that  Old  Her- 
esy of  Soul-Sleeping 

The  teachings  of  Millennial  Dawn  concerning  the 
existence  of  the  human  soul,  its  creation  and  im- 
mortality, are  at  variance  with  the  opinions  which 
mankind  have  generally  held,  contrary  to  human 
reason,  and  out  of  harmony  with  the  "Word  of  God. 
This  reference  to  human  reason  will  arouse  the 
wrath  of  Millennial  Dawn,  because  it  does  not  be- 
lieve in  any  man's  reason  except  its  own.  It  re- 
pudiates all  others.  The  Scriptural  account  is 
that  God  formed  man's  material,  animal  body  of 
the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed  into  his  nos- 
trils the  breath  of  life,  and  man  became  a  living 
soul  (Gen.  2:7).  The  human  person  is  therefore 
composed  of  two  distinct  and  separate  entities,  a 
body  and  a  soul.  His  body  identifies  him  with  the 
animal  kingdom;  his  soul  places  him  in  another 
kingdom  and  makes  him  a  being  of  a  higher  order 
25 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


than  the  animals.  If  we  examine  the  account  care- 
fully we  shall  see  that  man  is  differentiated  from 
the  animals  in  several  important  particulars: 

1 —  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground. 
We  are  not  told  that  any  animal  was  so  formed. 
This  is  man's  first  distinction. 

2 —  God  breathed  into  man's  nostrils.  No  ani- 
mal received  either  its  breath  or  its  life  in  that 
way.    This  is  distinction  number  two. 

3 —  The  thing  breathed  into  man's  nostrils  is 
called  the  "breath  of  life."  Here  the  Hebrew 
always  makes  a  distinction  between  men  and  ani- 
mals. The  term — breath  of  life — is  frequently 
applied  to  animals  in  the  early  Hebrew  Scriptures ; 
but  whenever  animals  are  said  to  have  the  breath 
of  life  the  Hebrew  term  is  always  ruach-hayim, 
literally,  the  wind  of  life.  Whenever  man  is  said 
to  have  the  breath  of  life  it  is  always  nishmath- 
hayim,  literally,  the  breath  of  life.  There  is  no 
•exception  to  this.  Both  men  and  animals  have 
"the  breath  of  life,"  but  it  is  not  by  any  means 
the  same  breath  of  life.  This  is  a  distinction 
which  is  sacredly  guarded  by  the  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures, but  utterly  obscured  in  our  English  version, 
which  always  translates  the  two  expressions  as 
though  they  were  the  same.  No  wonder  innocent 
but  unskilled  people  are  ignorant  of  the  facts,  and 
become  the  easy  prey  of  designing  bunglers.  It 
will  be  our  pleasure  to  point  out  many  similar 
instances  where  either  the  ignorance  or  the  de- 

26 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


sign  of  Millennial  Dawn  touching  the  real  meaning 
of  texts  is  capitalized  to  support  that  system,  of 
error. 

4 — "Man  became  a  living  soul."  This  is  equiv- 
alent to  saying  that  man  became  an  immortal  soul. 
The  term  immortal  soul,  or  immortality  of  the 
soul,  is  not  used  in  the  Sacred  Scripture ;  the  favo- 
rite term  being  a  "living  soul."  Plato's  opinion 
was  that  the  soul,  being  a  single  substance  and  not 
a  compound,  could  not  be  destroyed,  and  that, 
therefore,  it  is  necessarily  immortal.  That  opinion 
from  one  of  the  greatest  genius-inspired  men  which 
the  world  has  seen  has  no  doubt  influenced  theo- 
logians all  too  much.  We  are  under  no  obligation 
to  adopt  an  error  because  it  is  old,  nor  because 
it  emanates  from  a  man  of  superior  genius.  We 
do  not  say  that  the  soul  is  necessarily  immortal, 
but  that  it  is  naturally  immortal — made  to  be  "a 
living  soul,"  and  that  it  will  live  always  unless 
assailed  by  some  destructive  agent  outside  of  itself. 
When  we  say  that  the  soul  is  naturally  immortal 
we  mean  exactly  what  those  words  imply — a  soul 
whose  nature  it  is  to  live;  that  there  is  no  self- 
limiting  device  upon  or  within  the  soul,  no  time- 
limit  upon  it  as  there  is  upon  or  within  the  body, 
which  will  die  naturally  within  a  definite  period 
of  time.  The  soul  will  never  die  naturally,  but 
will  live  always  unless  it  shall  please  God,  for  suf- 
ficient reason,  to  strike  it  from  the  muster-roll  of 
the  universe.  This  is  what  the  Scriptures  seem 
27 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


to  mean  by  the  oft-repeated  term  "a  living  soul." 
This  view  of  immortality  is  both  Scriptural  and 
reasonable. 

5 — The  next  item  is  that  the  soul  was  created 
in  the  "likeness  and  image  of  God."  (Gen.  1:  26). 
Does  not  this  mean  that  the  soul  is  an  entity,  an 
organism,  just  as  surely  as  the  body  is?  and  that 
its  organs  or  faculties  are  like  God's?  It  is  not 
the  same  as  God,  nor  in  His  nature,  but  like  Him. 
It  is  the  regenerated  soul  that  partakes  of  the 
Divine  nature  (2  Pet.  1:4).  The  Hebrew  Scrip- 
tures speak  of  the  divine  soul  fourteen  times, 
using  the  same  word  that  stands  for  the  human 
soul  one  hundred  and  nine  times.  This  furnishes 
the  basis  of  the  divine  likeness.  In  what  respect 
is  the  soul  like  God?  It  is  not  difficult  to  see. 
Practically  all  eminent  students  of  the  soul  agree 
at  this  point. 

The  human  soul  is  like  the  divine  soul  in  that 
it  has  power  to  think.  That  which  thinks  we  call 
intellect.  Man's  intellect  is  like  God's — a  finite 
copy  after  the  infinite  Original.  A  being  without 
intellect  could  never  be  a  companion  of  God. 

The  second  respect  in  which  man  is  like  God  is 
that  he  is  capable  of  feeling — pleasure,  pain,  joy, 
sorrow,  and  the  like.  That  organ  or  faculty  of 
the  soul  which  feels  we  call  heart  or  sensibility, 
whether  it  be  divine  or  human.  In  the  possession 
of  this  faculty  also  man  is  like  God. 

The  third  respect  in  which  man  is  like  God  is 
that  he  has  power  to  choose,  to  act,  to  perform, 
28 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


and  thus  to  bring  things  to  pass.  In  this  the 
human  soul  is  like  God,  whose  power  of  choice 
and  action  is  infinite.  This  power  we  call  will. 
Thus  man  is  like  God  in  that  he  has  powers  of 
thought,  feeling,  and  action  which  are  similar  to 
those  powers  in  the  Divine  Being.  This  view  of 
"the  likeness  and  image  of  God"  is  basic  and 
constitutional  in  the  construction  of  the  soul 
itself. 

No  being  in  the  universe,  not  even  God,  so  far 
as  our  present  knowledge  extends,  has  any  power 
outside  of  or  beyond  the  power  of  thought,  feeling, 
and  action.  In  this  respect  both  men  and  angels 
are  like  God.  There  is  strong  probability  that  all 
intelligent  beings  in  the  universe  were  so  created 
— intellect,  sensibility,  will — for  thus  only  could 
they  be  capable  of  divine  companionship.  And 
did  not  God  make  them  to  be  companions  for  Him- 
self? 

The  divine  likeness  in  man  has  been  weakened 
by  sin,  but  it  has  never  been  lost.  Nearly  two 
thousand  years  after  sin  entered  into  the  world, 
God  said  to  Noah,  "Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood 
by  man  shall  his  blood  be  shed,  because  in  the  like- 
ness of  God  created  He  him,"  (Gen.  9:6).  And 
four  thousand  years  after  sin  came,  James  says, 
"With  the  tongue  we  bless  God  and  curse  man, 
who  was  made  in  the  likeness  of  God,"  (Ja. 
3:9). 

Paul  tells  the  Corinthians  that  a  man  ought 
not  to  cover  his  head,  for  he  is  the  "image  and 
29 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


glory  of  God;"  and  these  texts  ought  to  settle  it 
once  for  all  that  man  has  not  lost  the  divine  image 
by  sin,  though  he  has  lost  his  original  innocence. 
The  divine  likeness  therefore  does  not  consist  of 
any  quality  or  mental  state  or  moral  condition, 
but  of  faculties  and  organs  that  are  copied  after 
God. 

Paul  tells  Timothy  that  "only  God  hath  im- 
mortality." If  that  statement  be  taken  without 
modification,  then  no  being,  not  even  angels,  are 
immortal,  which  is  absurd.  The  text  without  modi- 
fication proves  too  much.  So  if  we  would  interpret 
his  statement  in  harmony  with  the  "analogy  of 
faith, ' '  we  should  be  obliged  to  say  that  Paul  must 
have  meant  that  God  is  the  only  being  in  the  uni- 
verse who  possesses  immortality  as  an  original, 
eternal,  and  necessary  endowment.  No  other  being 
has  it  in  any  one  of  these  senses.  His  immortality 
is  eternal,  ours  had  a  beginning.  His  is  original, 
ours  is  conferred.  His  is  necessary,  ours  is  con- 
tingent upon  the  divine  will.  Is  not  this  a  sane 
view  of  immortality?  And  is  it  not  the  view  that 
the  Bible  holds?  In  this  sense,  and  this  only,  we 
claim  to  be  immortal. 

Millennial  Dawn  is  not  the  first  cult  that  has 
sought  to  degrade  and  belittle  man,  by  making  him 
in  every  essential  respect  a  beast;  his  soul  breath, 
his  spirit  wind,  the  divine  likeness,  a  mental  state 
or  a  moral  condition ;  instead  of  life  and  hope  and 
joy,  a  tomb;  instead  of  millenniums  of  happiness 
in  Paradise,  ages  of  rot  in  a  grave. 

30 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 

This  truer  doctrine  of  immortality  comports 
well  with  the  dignity  and  glory  that  God  associates 
with  the  creation  of  man.  The  psalmist  declares, 
"When  I  consider  Thy  heavens  the  work  of  Thy 
fingers,  the  moon  and  the  stars  which  Thou  hast 
ordained,  what  must  man  be  that  Thou  are  mind- 
ful of  him,  and  the  Son  of  man  that  Thou  visitest 
him?  For  Thou  hast  made  him  but  a  little  lower 
than  God,  and  hast  crowned  him  with  glory  and 
honor.  Thou  madest  him  to  have  dominion  over 
the  work  of  Thy  hands;  Thou  hast  put  all  things 
under  his  feet."  Soul-sleepers  would  rob  man  of 
this  high  station  and  reduce  him  to  the  level  of 
the  brute ;  and  if  it  had  not  been  positively  settled 
that  man  was  created  in  the  divine  likeness  and 
given  dominion  over  the  earth,  we  may  be  sure 
that  Millennial  Dawn  would  have  denied  him  any 
distinction  of  that  nature  until  it  had  gotten  its 
millennium  into  working  order.  But  when  the 
psalmist  says,  "Thou  hast  put  all  things  under 
his  feet,"  it  is  evident  that  he  was  not  telling  us 
what  was  going  to  happen  in  some  far-off  millen- 
nium, but  what  is  true  here  and  now  in  this  pres- 
ent world  and  time.  "With  this  magnificent  Scrip- 
ture descriptive  of  man  before  us,  can  any  fair- 
minded  person  still  believe  that  man  is  in  no  re- 
spect different  from  the  brutes  that  perish  and  rot 
in  the  grave?  There  are  those  who,  for  the  sake 
of  some  doctrinal  hobby,  can  go  to  that  extreme, 
but  most  candid  and  intelligent  people  repudiate 
such  low  and  coarse  materialism. 

31 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


Scripture  Evidence  of  Immortality 

There  is  nothing  which  Millennial  Dawn  so 
much  delights  in — unless  it  is  its  furious  and  heroic 
assaults  upon  those  old  and  discredited  falsehoods 
of  foreordination  and  eternal  torments — as  this 
gruesome  doctrine  of  soul-sleeping  in  the  grave. 
It  seems  to  he  almost  delirious  with  joy  at  the 
thought  of  the  souls  of  the  early  saints,  like  Abel 
and  Enoch,  rotting  in  their  graves  for  five  thou- 
sand years!  And  that  senseless  stuff  is  the  doom 
of  us  all !  And  how  does  it  make  out  such  an  ab- 
surdity? Easy  enough.  Just  make  sheol  in  the 
Old  Testament  and  hades  in  the  New  always  mean 
the  grave  or  oblivion,  and  you  have  it !  Volume 
V  of  the  Millennial  Dawn  series  at  page  354  and 
onward  for  nearly  thirty  pages  reiterates  over  and 
over  that  sheol  and  hades  mean  grave  or  oblivion. 
And  this  absurdity  is  so  deep-rooted  in  the  entire 
scheme  of  Millennial  Dawn  that  we  shall  be  obliged 
to  devote  considerable  space  to  the  exposure  of 
the  error. 

What  Does  Sheol  Mean? 

1 — Sheol  in  the  Hebrew  Bible. — Gesenius'  Heb- 
rew Lexicon  devotes  two  hundred  and  fifty  words 
to  the  definition  of  sheol  as  the  under  world,  the 
place  where  go  departed  spirits  at  death,  etc.,  but 
never  once  mentions  either  the  grave  or  oblivion 
in  connection  with  it.  And  that  is  practically  the 
testimony  of  all  Hebrew  lexicographers.  Any 
32 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


person  who  takes  the  trouble  to  examine  the  He- 
brew lexicons  of  Gesenius,  Moore,  Fuerst,  Park- 
hurst,  Brown,  Driver,  Briggs,  will  find  that  they 
are  all  in  perfect  harmony  in  their  affirmations 
that  sheol  means  the  place  of  departed  spirits ;  not 
the  grave,  not  oblivion,  not  a  state  primarily,  but 
a  place  where  all  mankind  go  at  death.  We  know' 
of  no  Bible  dictionary,  cyclopedia,  or  lexical  au- 
thority that  bears  any  other  testimony.  Who 
knows  best — the  united  and  godly  scholarship  of 
the  entire  world,  or  Millennial  Dawn?  For  that 
is  exactly  the  issue ! 

Sheol  is  found  sixty-five  times  in  the  Hebrew 
Bible.  Its  meaning  must  be  found  by  the  use 
which  those  ancient  Hebrews  made  of  it.  It 
does  not  mean  heaven ;  the  Hebrew  word  shama- 
yim,  found  four  hundred  and  twenty  times,  is  al- 
ways used  in  that  sense.  It  does  not  mean  hell, 
except  when  qualified  by  a  descriptive  term,  as  we 
shall  show  presently.  It  does  not  mean  pit,  the 
common  word  for  which  is  bor,  while  there  are 
ten  other  words  which  are  used  in  that  sense. 
Sheol  does  not  mean  grave,  the  Hebrew  word  for 
which  is  qcbcr,  and  appears  more  than  fifty  times 
in  the  Hebrew.  Nor  does  it  mean  death,  though 
it  is  once  so  translated  in  the  Greek  version.  If 
it  does  not  mean  heaven,  hell,  grave,  pit,  death, 
nor  oblivion — what  is  its  true  meaning? 

If  we  were  to  examine  all  the  texts  where  the 
word  occurs  we  would  find  that  in  many  of  these 
the  meaning  is  vague,  frequently  figurative,  and 

3  33 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


often  obscure.  No  doubt  in  the  Hebrew  mind  the 
exact  meaning  of  the  word  was  not  always  well 
defined — perhaps  a  little  less  distinct  than  the 
common  notion  of  heaven  as  generally  held  to-day ; 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  word  is  found  a  sufficient 
number  of  times  where  its  meaning  can  not  be 
mistaken.    Let  us  examine  some  of  these. 

(1) — Sheol  means  a  place  of  conscious  existence 
for  all  mankind,  and  they  enter  it  immediately 
after  death. 

Gen.  37:35,  "I  will  go  down  to  sheol  to  my 
son  mourning."  This  is  Jacob's  way  of  saying 
that  his  sorrow  over  the  supposed  death  of  Joseph 
would  kill  him.  Did  Jacob  expect  to  meet  his  son 
in  the  stomach  of  a  wild  beast,  or  did  he  expect 
to  meet  his  soul  in  sheol1?  Will  Millennial  Dawn 
or  any  other  soul-sleeper  please  tell  us  why  the 
ancient  Hebrew  translators  of  the  Greek  version 
rendered  sheol  in  this  place  hades  instead  of 
mnemeion  or  taphos,  the  Greek  word  for  grave 
and  tomb? 

Do  not  the  following  texts  represent  sheol  as  a 
place  of  conscious  existence  for  human  souls  after 
death?— 

Ps.  55:15,  "Let  them  go  down  alive  into  sheol." 
Ps.  9:17,  "  The  wicked  shall  be  turned  into  sheol 

and  all  the  nations  that  forget  God." 
Ps.  139 :  7-10,  "Whither  shall  I  go  from  Thy  spirit, 

or  whither  shall  I  flee  from  Thy  presence  ?  If 
34 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


I  ascend  up  into  heaven  Thou  art  there;  if  I 

make  my  bed  in  sheol,  behold,  Thou  art  there  ! ' ' 
Ez.  32:21,  "The  strong  among  the  mighty  shall 

speak  to  Him  out  of  the  midst  of  sheol." 
Prov.  1:12,  "Let  us  swallow  them  up  alive  as 

sheol. ' ' 

Jonah  2:  22,  "Out  of  the  belly  of  sheol  cried  I 
unto  Thee,  and  Thou  heardest  my  voice." 

Is.  14 :  9-15,  describes  the  reception  which  a  wicked 
king  received  upon  his  entrance  into  sheol." 

Ps.  49:14,  "Like  a  flock  they  are  laid  in  the 
grave."  "Who  ever  saw  a  flock  of  sheep  laid  in 
the  grave?  No  one.  The  finer  figure  of  the 
Hebrew  poet  is:  "Like  a  flock  we  all  are  rush- 
ing into  sheol." 

These  are  sufficient  to  make  it  clear  that  sheol 
is  often  used  in  the  Hebrew  Scripture  to  indicate 
a  state  of  consciousness  after  death.  But  these 
are  not  the  only  places  where  sheol  has  that  mean- 
ing, as  we  shall  presently  see. 

(2) — "When  sheol  is  used  in  a  bad  sense. — In 
a  broad  and  somewhat  vague  way  the  ancient  He- 
brews believed  that  sheol  represented  a  state  of 
happiness  for  the  good  and  of  misery  for  the  bad. 
This  is  sufficiently  shown  by  the  ever  present  fact 
that  when  sheol  is  mentioned  as  the  abode  of  bad 
men  after  death,  a  descriptive  term  is  always  used, 
such  as  "the  lower  sheol,"  "the  sides  of  sheol," 
"the  bottom  of  sheol,"  "the  depths  of  sheol,"  etc. 
35 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


Thus  somewhat  vaguely  we  have  the  two  com- 
partments of  sheol  as  the  home  of  the  good  and 
of  the  bad — sheol  and  the  lower  sheol.  The  texts 
which  follow  exhibit  that  character,  and  make  this 
proposition  plain  to  any  careful  reader: 

Deut.  32:22,  "A  fire  shall  burn  to  the  lowest 
sheol. ' ' 

Is.  14:9,  "Sheol  from  beneath  is  moved  for  thee 
to  meet  thee  at  thy  coming." 

Ps.  86:13,  "Thou  deliveredst  my  soul  from  the 
lowest  sheol." 

Prov.  9:18,  "Her  (the  wicked  woman's)  guests 
are  in  the  depths  of  sheol." 

Prov.  15:24,  "To  the  wise  the  way  of  life  goeth 
upward,  that  he  may  depart  from  sheol  be- 
neath." 

Whenever  sheol  is  accompanied  by  a  qualifying 
term,  as  shown  in  these  texts,  it  is  used  in  a  bad 
sense,  and  represents  the  place  and  state  of  wicked 
men  after  death.  In  all  such  cases  it  would  be 
proper  to  translate  it  hell,  providing  it  be  not 
understood  as  a  place  of  eternal  retribution;  for 
we  shall  now  see  that — 

(3) — Sheol  is  a  temporal  and  not  an  eternal 
state. — Sheol  is  an  intermediate  state.  It  begins 
with  death  and  ends  with  the  resurrection,  and  so 
far  as  the  human  race  is  concerned  it  will  come 
to  an  end  with  that  event.  Those  dwelling  in 
sheol  will  not  remain  there  forever,  as  the  follow- 
ing texts  clearly  indicate: 
36 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


Ps.  16 : 10,  ' '  Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  sheol, 

neither  wilt  Thou  suffer  Thine  Holy  One  to 

see  corruption." 
Ps.  49:15,  "But  God  will  redeem  my  soul  from 

the  power  of  sheol." 
1  Sam.  2:6,  "  The  Lord  killeth,  and  maketh  alive ; 

He  bringeth  down  to  sheol,  and  bringeth  up." 
Ps.  30 :  3,  "  Thou  hast  brought  up  my  soul  from 

sheol. ' ' 

Hosea  13 : 14,  ' '  I  will  ransom  them  from  the  power 
of  sheol;  I  will  redeem  them  from  death.  0, 
death,  where  are  thy  plagues?  0  sheol,  where 
is  thy  destruction?" 

This  last  text  prophesies  the  end  both  of  death 
for  the  body,  and  of  sheol  for  the  spirit,  at  the 
resurrection ;  and  in  his  great  chapter  on  the  resur- 
rection Paul  paraphrased  it  in  1  Cor.  15 : 55. 

This  examination  of  sheol  as  it  stands  in  the 
Hebrew  Bible  is  sufficient  to  establish  the  three 
propositions  made  above — That  sheol  is  an  inter- 
mediate state  for  all  mankind  between  death  and 
the  resurrection;  that  it  is  a  state  of  conscious 
existence;  and  that  when  it  is  used  to  designate 
the  abode  of  wicked  souls,  that  character  is  indi- 
cated by  a  descriptive  or  qualifying  term.  But 
from  first  to  last  there  is  nothing  about  it  that 
identifies  it  with  the  grave,  and  there  is  no  Bibli- 
cal authority  anywhere  which  in  any  way  regards 
it  as  meaning  the  grave  or  oblivion,  Millennial 
Dawn  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

37 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


The  Septuagint 

2 — Sheol  in  the  Greek  Version  of  the  Hebrew 
Bible. — In  all  the  world  there  is  no  testimony  so 
valuable  as  to  the  meaning  of  Hebrew  words  as 
the  Septuagint.  Here  we  have  the  opinion  of  an- 
cient Hebrew  scholars,  nearly  three  hundred  years 
before  Christ,  put  in  such  enduring  form  that  no 
possible  change  can  ever  affect  it.  The  transla- 
tion which  these  men  made  of  their  Bible  into  the 
Greek  tongue  is  their  enduring  and  changeless 
testimony  as  to  what  they  thought  these  Hebrew 
words  meant. 

Sixty-five  times  they  encountered  the  word 
sheol  in  the  Bible;  how  did  they  render  it  into 
Greek  1  Their  treatment  of  this  word  must  forever 
settle  it  as  to  what  the  word  meant  in  their  day. 
They  did  not  render  it  hell,  tartarus,  not  even  in 
Is.  14 :  9,  where  it  might  bear  such  a  meaning. 
They  did  not  render  it  grave,  though  there  are 
two  Greek  words — mnema  for  grave,  and  taphos 
for  tomb — that  would  have  exactly  answered  their 
purpose  if  they  had  thought,  as  Millennium  Dawn 
does,  that  sheol  means  grave,  or  oblivion.  Evi- 
dently these  old  Hebrews  two  thousand  years  ago 
were  not  basking  in  the  superior  effulgence  of  Mil- 
lennial Dawn !  They  did  not  render  sheol  with 
the  Greek  word  for  pit,  though  that  tongue  has 
several  words  bearing  that  meaning,  two  of  which 
are  in  the  Greek  New  Testament.  Evidently  they 
did  not  think  that  sheol  meant  pit.  What  did 
38 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


they  think  it  meant?  We  are  not  left  in  doubt, 
for  they  rendered  it  sixty-one  times  out  of  sixty- 
five  with  the  Greek  word  hades!  There  we  have 
it.  Sheol  does  not  mean  pit,  hell,  nor  grave,  but 
HADES ! 

There  is  no  scholarly  authority  in  all  this  world 
having  any  respect  for  intelligence  and  honesty 
that  dares  stand  out  against  this  testimony  of  the 
Septuagint  translators,  that  sheol  means  hades! 
Not  until  Millennial  Dawn  arose  to  "illuminate" 
the  world  was  there  a  dissenting  voice.  For  nearly 
twenty-two  hundred  years  it  was  practically  unani- 
mous; now  Millennial  Dawn  arises  to  tell  the 
human  race  that  they  are  floundering  in  benighted 
ignorance  on  the  subject;  that  sheol  always  means 
grave  or  oblivion. 

What  Does  Hades  Mean? 

This  is  the  next  logical  step  in  our  inquiry. 
Since  the  Septuagint  translators  rendered  sheol 
with  the  Greek  word  hades,  and  since  hades  is 
found  eleven  times  in  the  Greek  New  Testament, 
it  is  all  important  now  to  find  out  what  this  word 
actually  means.  And  the  way  to  find  out  is  to 
inquire  of  Greek  authors  and  dictionary  makers. 
So  we  turn  to  the  oldest  and  probably  the  most 
influential  of  all  the  Greek  authors,  Homer,  and  we 
find  that  the  very  first  line  of  the  Iliad  declares 
that  the  wrath  of  Achilles  "hurled  many  valiant 
souls  of  heroes  down  to  Hades."  This  use  of  the 
39 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


word  forever  fixed  its  meaning  as  the  place  of  de- 
parted spirits  in  the  world  to  come.  And  that 
meaning  it  has  uniformly  borne  in  all  literature 
to  this  hour. 

It  would  seem  almost  a  work  of  supererogation 
to  fill  these  pages  with  quotations  from  Greek  lexi- 
cons giving  the  definition  of  hades.  We  could  men- 
tion Liddell  and  Scott,  Green,  Pickering,  and  a 
dozen  others;  but  there  is  not  one  dissenting  voice 
that  hades  means  the  state  and  place  of  souls  after 
death,  the  spirit-world,  the  abode  of  departed 
spirits.  If  it  were  a  question  to  be  determined  by 
the  preponderance  of  authorities,  we  would  here 
print  these  definitions,  but  as  the  scholarship  of 
the  world  has  but  one  testimony  to  offer,  it  is 
needless  to  go  further.  If  Millennial  Dawn  can 
bring  forward  just  one  learned  and  respectable 
authority  to  be  found  on  the  face  of  this  earth, 
showing  that  hades  ever  means  grave,  we  will  con- 
fess defeat.  We  challenge  it  to  show  just  one! 
And  if  there  is  none  on  earth,  we  demand  of  Millen- 
nial Dawn  why  it  still  goes  on  deceiving  simple,  un- 
skilled folk  with  its  downright  misrepresentations? 
Such  a  course  in  secular  things  would  be  called 
dishonest.  In  the  eyes  of  all  capable  and  candid 
men  a  system  founded  upon  such  a  false  basis 
stands  discredited. 

The  Greek  New  Testament 

3 — Hades  in  the  Nciv  Testament. — Remember- 
ing what  has  already  been  said — that  sheol  in  the 
40 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


Old  Testament  was  rendered  hades  in  the  Greek 
Version,  called  the  Septuagint — we  find  that  this 
opened  the  way  for  hades  to  come  into  the  Greek 
New  Testament  bearing  the  same  meaning — the 
world  of  departed  spirits.  We  find  hades  in  the 
New  Testament  eleven  times,  though  one  of  these 
is  a  repetition  by  a  different  Gospel  writer;  that 
it  has  substantially  the  meaning  which  the  word 
has  in  the  Septuagint  version,  and  which  sheol 
has  in  the  Hebrew  Bible.  So  that  the  sheol  of 
the  Old  Testament  is  the  hades  of  the  New.  Let 
us  examine  these  texts  in  the  New  Testament  and 
try  to  find  the  meaning  of  hades  there. 

Matt.  11:23;  Luke  10:15,  "And  thou,  Caper- 
naum, which  art  exalted  unto  heaven,  shall  be  cast 
down  to  hades."  Here  both  heaven  and  hades  are 
used  figuratively.  Capernaum  was  not  literally 
exalted  to  heaven,  nor  was  it  literally  cast  down 
to  hades. 

Matt.  16:18,  "Thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this 
rock  I  will  build  my  church,  and  the  gates  of  hades 
shall  not  prevail  against  it."  Here  again  the  use 
is  figurative,  and  by  "the  gates  of  hades"  is  prob- 
ably meant  the  powers  of  the  invisible  or  spirit 
world. 

Luke  16:19-31,  "And  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
beggar  died  and  was  carried  by  angels  into  Abra- 
ham's bosom;  the  rich  man  also  died  and  was 
buried;  and  in  hades  he  lifted  up  his  eyes,"  etc. 
Here  we  have  our  Lord's  authority  to  teach  that 
both  saints  and  worldlings  enter  upon  a  conscious 
41 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


state  of  existence  immediately  after  death;  and 
there  is  no  possible  way  by  which  Millennial  Dawn 
can  get  the  soul  of  either  of  them  into  the  grave! 
We  shall  examine  this  story  more  fully  in  another 
chapter.  It  is  sufficient  here  to  fix  the  meaning  of 
hades  as  a  state  of  conscious  existence  upon  the 
authority  of  our  Lord  Himself. 

Acts  2:  27,  31,  "Thou  wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in 
hades. "  "  His  soul  was  not  left  in  hades. ' '  This  is 
an  inspired  apostle's  authority  for  declaring  that 
while  our  Lord's  body  was  in  the  tomb  His  soul 
was  in  hades ;  also  that  hades  is  the  correct  render- 
ing of  the  word  sheol  in  the  Sixteenth  Psalm,  from 
which  Peter  was  quoting.  There  is  no  grave  about 
it.   What  has  Millennial  Dawn  to  say  to  that? 

1  Cor.  15:55,  "0  death,  where  is  thy  sting? 
O  hades,  where  is  thy  victory?"  This  is  Paul's 
splendid  paraphrase  of  Hosea  13 : 14,  and  both  are 
prophecies  of  the  resurrection  when  death  must 
give  up  the  body,  and  hades  must  surrender  the 
soul. 

Rev.  1:18,  "I  have  the  keys  of  death  and 
hades. ' ' 

Rev.  6:8,  "  And  I  saw  a  pale  horse,  and  he 
that  sat  upon  him  was  death;  and  hades  followed 
with  him."  This  represents  death  cutting  down 
the  bodies,  and  hades  following  close  after  to  claim 
the  souls. 

Rev.  20:13,  14,  "And  death  and  hades  gave 
up  the  dead  that  were  in  them;  and  death  and 
hades  were  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire."   This  is  de- 
42 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


scriptive  of  the  resurrection;  death  surrenders  the 
bodies  which  it  holds,  and  hades  releases  the  souls 
which  it  has  so  long  held  in  captivity.  The  fact 
that  they  both  come  to  an  end  in  the  lake  of  fire 
shows  that  they  both  represent  an  intermediate 
state.    Eternity  lies  beyond  the  general  judgment. 

Sheol-Hades  in  Oue  English  Version 

4 — We  must  next  consider  how  these  words 
were  rendered  in  our  English  Bible. — Luther  and 
the  Reformers  were  so  anxious  to  get  rid  of  the 
doctrine  of  Purgatory  that  they  went  to  the  ex- 
treme of  practically  expunging  every  trace  of  the 
intermediate  state  from  the  body  of  Christian  doc- 
trines and  from  the  languages  of  modern  Europe. 
It  is  not  therefore  to  be  wondered  at  that  there 
is  no  word  in  either  the  German  or  the  English 
languages  to  represent  sheol  and  hades;  nor  that 
the  nations  that  use  these  tongues  are  ignorant  of 
the  real  facts  concerning  them.  As  a  result  King 
James'  Version  mistranslates  sheol  thirty-one  times 
grave,  thirty-one  times  hell,  and  three  times  pit, 
and  thus  succeeds  in  missing  its  true  meaning 
every  time! 

The  Revised  Version  translates  sheol  fifteen 
times  grave,  fifteen  times  hell,  and  five  times  pit, 
and  then  proceeds  to  atone  for  the  blunder  by 
transliterating  it  thirty  times,  which  it  ought  to 
have  done  sixty-five  times.  But  this  treatment 
was  better  than  any  version  before  it  had  at- 
tempted, and  was  a  move  in  the  right  direction. 
43 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


The  American  Revision  has  done  the  only  thing 
that  could  possibly  be  done  correctly — not  to  trans- 
late it  at  all,  because  there  is  no  word  in  the  Eng- 
lish language  which  can  possibly  represent  sheol. 
They  transliterated  and  thus  made  an  English 
word  of  it  every  time  they  found  it.  It  is  no 
longer  a  Hebrew  word  exclusively.  It  has  by  the 
American  Revision  been  naturalized  in  the  English 
language;  and  we  must  now  know  its  meaning  as 
we  know  the  meaning  of  Jehovah,  Zion,  and  Halle- 
lujah, and  many  other  words  from  the  Hebrew, 
which  have  been  English  words  for  centuries. 
"Why  did  not  these  American  Revisers  render  sheol 
grave,  pit,  or  hell?  Simply  because  they  had  too 
much  intelligence,  scholarship,  and  honesty  to  per- 
petuate that  stupid  blunder  any  longer.  Why  does 
Millennial  Dawn  still  persist  in  foisting  that  old 
discredited  error  upon  mankind?  Simply  because 
it  prefers  that  kind  of  a  foundation  for  its  system. 
It  required  a  good  deal  of  intelligence,  honesty, 
and  heroism  to  repudiate  a  blunder  so  thoroughly 
entrenched  as  this  is,  that  sheol  and  hades  always 
mean  the  grave.  But  the  Revised  Version  and 
the  American  Revision  have  dragged  the  old  fraud 
from  its  obscurity,  and  henceforth  intelligent  peo- 
ple will  not  remain  in  ignorance  concerning  it. 

A  similar  treatment  has  been  accorded  the  word 
hades  in  the  English  New  Testament.  The  Author- 
ized Version  rendered  it  hell  in  every  instance  but 
one.  This  was  bad  enough,  but  it  showed  that 
they  thought  it  meant  the  place  where  the  souls 
44 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


went  at  death,  not  the  grave,  and  that  was  some- 
thing gained.  The  revisers  did  not  attempt  to 
translate  it  at  all,  but  made  an  English  word  of 
it  in  every  instance.  May  we  not  now  hope  that 
intelligent  Bible  students  will  gain  correct  opinions 
concerning  its  true  meaning?  That  question  may 
be  considered  settled,  unless  Millennial  Dawn  is 
prepared  to  arise  and  tell  us  just  where  in  the 
New  Testament  hades  ought  to  be  rendered  grave. 

Soul-Sleeping 

Nearly  all  grades  of  millennialists  have  an  ab- 
normal fondness  for  soul-sleeping.  It  is  a  strange 
fascination.  But  to  them,  as  to  Millennial  Dawn, 
the  thought  of  the  privilege  of  rotting  for  thou- 
sands of  years,  soul  and  all,  in  the  grave,  arouses 
them  to  a  high  pitch  of  religious  frenzy.  Why 
is  this  ?  Is  it  because  it  is  so  much  easier  to  manu- 
facture a  millennium  out  of  the  world 's  population 
now  in  their  graves  than  it  is  to  bring  saints  out 
of  Paradise  or  sinners  out  of  Tartarus  for  such  a 
purpose?  They  are  forever  telling  us  that  when 
a  man  dies  his  soul  goes  into  tbe  grave  along  with 
his  body  to  "sleep"  till  the  resurrection.  No  con- 
siderations of  the  true  nature  of  the  soul,  no  evi- 
dences of  its  natural  immortality,  however  over- 
whelming or  convincing,  are  allowed  to  stand  one 
moment  before  this  strange  fiction. 

And  what  a  silly  fiction  it  is!  Gentle  spirits 
among  all  nations  have  preferred  to  represent  the 
harsh  and  stern  realities  of  death  under  the  kind- 
46 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


lier  figure  of  sleep.  It  is  a  literary  fancy  that  is 
world-wide,  and  is  justified  by  the  evident  simi- 
larity in  appearance  between  one  asleep  and  one 
dead.  But  few  ever  interpret  this  in  any  literal 
sense.  Death  is  not  sleep,  and  sleep  is  not  death. 
Whenever  we  say  of  one  dead  that  he  is  asleep, 
we  use  language  figuratively.  So  everywhere 
and  always  with  the  Sacred  Scriptures.  The 
warmth  and  glow  of  the  Oriental  mind  could  not 
be  expected  to  express  itself  upon  so  forbidding  a 
subject  as  death  except  in  softer  and  more  pic- 
torial speech.  Death  is  represented  under  the  fig- 
ure of  sleep,  just  as  religious  joy  is  expressed  by 
"mountains  breaking  forth  into  singing  and  all 
the  trees  of  the  field  clapping  their  hands."  The 
righteous  man  is  "like  a  tree  planted  by  rivers 
of  water."  Sensible  conversation  is  "like  apples 
of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver."  We  confess  our 
sins  by  saying,  "All  we  like  sheep  have  gone 
astray."  The  universal  reign  of  death  is  set  forth 
thus,  "Like  a  flock  they  rush  to  sheol."  The 
wickedness  of  a  great  king  is  thus  proclaimed, 
"How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  0  Lucifer, 
son  of  the  morning ! ' '  And  so  forth  with  many 
hundred  like  expressions,  high-wrought,  figurative, 
fanciful.  Could  less  be  expected  of  minds  imbued 
with  these  Oriental  feelings  and  training  than  that 
they  would  express  the  sad  features  of  death  with 
the  gentler  poetry  of  sleep? 

We  find  the  word  sleep  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
six  times  in  the  Scriptures,  and  fifty-five  times  it 
47 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


is  used  figuratively  for  death.  But  there  is  no 
affirmation  in  the  Bible  that  death  is  sleep,  or  that 
sleep  is  death.  In  the  Thirteenth  Psalm  is  the 
expression,  "sleep  of  death,"  as  if  the  author  felt 
that  the  word  sleep  alone  was  not  quite  sufficient 
to  express  real  death.  But  the  Orientals  were  not 
confused  by  this  use  of  the  term  sleep.  Several 
times  in  the  Gospels  we  have  the  statement  concern- 
ing the  maiden,  "She  is  not  dead  but  sleepeth." 
Jesus  said  to  His  disciples,  "Our  friend  Lazarus 
sleepeth. ' '  They  understood  him  as  speaking  liter- 
ally, and  suggested  that  sleep  would  do  him  good. 
Then  Jesus  dropped  the  figure  and  spoke  to  them 
in  literal  terms,  ' '  Lazarus  is  dead. ' '  That  incident 
and  the  use  our  Lord  made  of  the  figure  of  sleep 
ought  to  satisfy  all  fair-minded  men  that  when  one 
is  dead  he  is  not  in  any  sense  asleep,  and  that  the 
Biblical  use  of  sleep  for  death  is  always  figurative. 

When  kings  and  eminent  persons  died  the  He- 
brew writers  generally  said,  "He  slept  with  his 
fathers;"  but  when  men  of  lesser  rank  died  that 
fact  was  often  stated  in  more  literal  terms,  as  note 
1  Kings  11 :  21,  "  Hadad  heard  in  Egypt  that  David 
slept  with  his  fathers  and  that  Joab  was  dead." 
Is  not  such  an  instance  ample  proof  that  when  the 
dead  are  said  to  be  asleep  the  language  is  figura- 
tive? 

We  wonder  if  Millennial  Dawn  ever  discovered 
that  when  an  ordinary  man,  a  sinner,  or  some  great 
scoundrel  died,  the  sacred  writers  do  not  say,  "He 
slept  with  his  fathers,"  but  in  bald  literalism  tell 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


us  that  he  died.  Notice  the  account  of  the  death  of 
Achan,  Abner,  Absalom,  Saul,  Joab,  Ahab,  the 
Rich  Fool,  Judas,  Ananias,  Sapphira,  and  Herod. 

The  sacred  writers  and  speakers  frequently 
represent  sin  and  sinners  by  both  sleep  and  death, 
as,  "Awake,  thou  that  sleepest  and  arise  from  the 
dead,  and  Christ  shall  give  thee  light."  Here  both 
sleep  and  death  are  used  as  figures  of  sin.  Death 
is  also  used  as  a  figure  of  the  unregenerate  in  this 
text,  "Let  the  dead  bury  their  dead."  Millions 
are  constantly  speaking  of  sleep  for  death  who  do 
not  at  all  believe  in  the  soul-sleeping  nonsense.  In 
view  of  all  this  it  is  notbing  less  than  childish  and 
pitiable  to  see  Biblical  teachers,  as  Millennial 
Dawn  professes  to  be,  forever  reiterating  that  old 
threadbare  falsehood  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  are 
asleep  in  their  graves  or  are  in  a  state  of  "ob- 
livion. ' ' 

Further  Scripture  Evidence  op  Immortality 

There  is  another  class  of  Scripture  evidences 
which  in  their  nature  are  more  direct  as  bearing 
upon  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  while  it  would 
make  this  work  too  cumbersome  to  quote  them  all, 
we  will  introduce  a  few  of  them.  A  vast  majority 
of  able,  devout,  and  scholarly  Bible  students  in  all 
ages  have  believed  the  soul's  immortality  upon  the 
authority  of  these  Scriptures.  And  it  is  difficult 
to  see  how  they  could  have  done  otherwise. 

"WTiat  happens  to  a  man  when  he  dies?  There 
is  a  pretty  substantial  agreement  that  his  body 

4  49 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 

decays,  loses  its  identity,  and  is  resolved  into  the 
very  elements  of  which  the  earth  is  composed. 
Does  a  similar  thing  happen  to  his  soul — that  part 
of  him  that  was  created  in  the  image  of  God?  Or 
does  death  separate  the  body  and  the  soul,  and  send 
each  to  a  separate  destiny?  That  is  clearly  the 
Scriptural  message.  "The  dust  returns  to  the 
earth  as  it  was,  and  the  spirit  returns  to  God  who 
gave  it."  (Ecc.  12:7.)  Our  life  "is  soon  cut  off 
and  we  fly  away"  is  the  way  the  Ninetieth  Psalm 
has  it.  Paul  declared,  "I  am  in  a  strait  betwixt 
two,  having  a  desire  to  depart  and  be  with  Christ." 
(Phil.  1 :  23.)  If  Paul  expected  to  go  into  the  grave 
or  to  lose  all  consciousness  in  "oblivion"  it  is  hard 
to  understand  his  1 1  strait. ' '  The  fact  is  that  Paul 's 
better  knowledge  enabled  him  to  say  of  death  that 
"to  be  absent  from  the  body  is  to  be  present  with 
the  Lord."    (2  Cor.  5:8.) 

In  our  Lord's  controversy  with  the  Sadducees 
upon  the  resurrection,  he  took  occasion  to  rebuke 
them  for  their  ignorance  of  the  Scriptures  and 
of  their  rejection  of  the  doctrine  of  immortality, 
declaring  that ' '  God  is  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac, 
and  Jacob;  He  is  not  the  God  of  the  dead,  but  of 
the  living."  (Matt.  22:  32.)  In  effect,  Millennial 
Dawn  says,  "0  no,  Jesus,  You  are  mistaken.  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob  are  not  living;  their  bodies 
have  long  since  rotted  in  the  grave,  and  their  souls 
are  in  'oblivion.'  They  '11  not  live  again  until 
the  Millennium!"  Thus  it  puts  itself  squarely  in 
antagonism  to  the  "analogy  of  faith"  which  Paul 
50 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


said  should  guide  us  in  the  interpretation  of  Scrip- 
tures. (Rom.  12:  6.)  Those  who  are  willing  to  be 
deceived  will  continue  to  follow  Millennial  Dawn. 

Jesus  taught  that  the  death  of  the  body  does 
not  involve  the  death  of  the  soul  when  He  said, 
' '  Fear  not  them  that  kill  the  body,  but  are  not  able 
to  Mil  the  soul."  (Matt.  10:28.)  This  language 
of  our  Lord  is  misleading  if  the  soul  goes  into 
the  grave  with  the  body  or  into  "oblivion"  at 
death.  Paul  in  his  experience  of  being  "caught 
up"  to  Paradise  and  the  third  heaven,  tells  us 
that  he  did  not  know  whether  he  was  "in  the  body 
or  out  of  the  body ; ' '  and  his  language  can  have  no 
meaning  unless  the  soul  and  the  body  are  two  dis- 
tinct and  separate  organisms,  and  the  soul  able  to 
exist  apart  from  the  body.  (2  Cor.  12:  2.)  James 
says  that  the  body  without  the  soul  is  dead;  but 
he  does  not  say  that  the  soul  without  the  body  is 
dead  also. 

Paul's  account  of  the  outward  and  the  inward 
man  (2  Cor.  4:16) — the  body  and  the  soul — the 
body  perishing  every  day,  the  soul  renewed  and 
ever  growing  in  glory  and  power,  can  have  no 
meaning  except  upon  the  theory  that  these  are  two 
distinct  organisms,  one  material,  the  other  spirit- 
ual— one  mortal  and  the  other  immortal. 

Fifteen  hundred  years  after  Moses  had  died, 
and  seven  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  Elijah 
had  been  translated,  they  both  appeared  with 
Christ  on  the  Mount  of  Transfiguration.  Evi- 
dently their  souls  were  not  in  any  grave  nor  slum- 
51 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


bering  in  "oblivion."  They  were  very  much  alive. 
Millennial  Dawn  feels  how  damaging  this  is  to  its 
pet  soul-sleeping  fiction;  so  it  proceeds  to  create 
another  fiction,  and  tells  us  that  this  was  a  "vi- 
sion," intending  by  that  to  convey  the  impression 
that  is  was  not  real ;  that  what  the  disciples  thought 
they  saw  and  heard  was  some  impression  produced 
upon  them  in  an  abnormal  or  sub-conscious  mental 
state ;  that  Moses  and  Elijah  were  not  really  there 
at  all;  in  other  words,  that  Jesus  was  only  fooling 
them!  That  is  exactly  what  Millennial  Dawn 
does  on  every  occasion  when  baffled  by  the  truth — 
resort  to  some  fiction  or  falsehood  to  distort  the 
plain  meaning  of  Scripture !  Peter  and  James  and 
John  and  the  Master  were  not  on  the  mountain 
at  all!  Jesus  was  not  transfigured  before  them! 
Moses  and  Elijah  were  not  there  in  person!  The 
whole  thing  was  a  ' '  vision ! ' '  And  sure  enough  ! 
Did  not  Jesus  tell  us  it  was  a  "vision?"  When 
we  see  anything  we  call  it  a  sight.  When  the 
Greeks  saw  anything  they  also  called  it  a  sight — 
a  liorama — a  thing  seen.  That  is  what  Jesus  called 
the  Transfiguration,  and  that  is  also  the  word  that 
Stephen  called  the  burning  bush  which  Moses 
saw  (Acts  7:  31).  Both  were  sights  or  visions,  one 
as  real  and  literal  as  the  other. 

The  Intermediate  State 

Protestant  theologians  in  recent  years  have  be- 
come well-nigh  unanimous  in  support  of  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Intermediate  State.    To  name  only  a 
52 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


few  among  many — Wesley,  Shedd,  Hagenback, 
Hodge,  Miley,  Pope,  Johnson,  Foster,  Dwight, 
Dorner,  Merrill,  Raymond,  Curtis — shows  that  the 
funeral  sermonizer  who  assumes  that  saints  go  di- 
rectly from  this  world  to  heaven,  and  sinners  to 
their  eternal  retribution,  is  likely  soon  to  be  lone- 
some. The  Intermediate  State — sheol,  hades,  which 
has  already  been  fully  discussed  in  this  chapter — 
has  its  two  compartments  or  states,  Paradise  and 
Tartarus  (2  Pet.  2:4),  separated  by  the  Great 
Gulf  of  Luke  16 :  26.  Jesus  went  to  Paradise  from 
the  cross  and  remained  there  while  His  body  was 
in  the  sepulcher.  He  took  with  Him  the  soul  of 
the  penitent  thief,  a  glory  which  Millennial  Dawn 
would  rob  Him  of  by  changing  a  punctuation 
mark!  The  Sixteenth  Psalm  declared  that  "Thou 
wilt  not  leave  my  soul  in  sheol;"  and  in  his  great 
Pentecostal  sermon  Peter  applies  that  to  Christ 
and  declares  that ' '  His  soul  was  not  left  in  hades. ' ' 
Jesus  was  in  hades — Paradise — not  in  heaven,  for 
on  the  morning  of  the  resurrection  He  said  to 
Mary,  "Touch  Me  not,  for  I  have  not  yet  ascended 
to  My  Father. ' '  There  is  no  Millennial  Dawn  soul- 
sleeping  nor  "oblivion"  here! 

Immortality  versus  Eternal.  Life 

Immortality  and  eternal  life  are  not  the  same. 
A  vast  amount  of  confusion  concerning  the  natural 
immortality  of  the  soul  comes  from  the  false  notion 
that  they  are  identical.  So  when  one  comes  across 
a  text — and  there  are  many  of  them — which  teaches 
53 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


that  eternal  life  is  conditioned  upon  faith  in  Christ, 
they  at  once  assume,  and  wrongly,  that  immortal- 
ity is  so  conditioned,  and  that  those  who  have  not 
faith  in  Christ  as  the  Savior  miss  immortality. 
This  is  the  fruitful  source  of  the  error  and  con- 
fusion upon  the  subject. 

Immortality  is  the  life  of  the  soul.  We  have 
already  defined  it  as  exemption  from  any  self- 
limiting  device.  There  is  no  time-limit  in  the 
soul  as  there  is  within  the  body.  The  body  will 
die  naturally  after  a  certain  time.  The  soul  will 
never  die  naturally.  It  is  a  living  soul.  If  it  ever 
dies  or  ceases  to  exist,  some  power  outside  of  itself 
must  work  its  overthrow.  If  never  assailed  from 
without  it  will  live  forever.  But  immortality  is 
simply  life — continued  existence,  duration;  it  has 
no  reference  to  a  kind  of  life.  It  is  quantity 
rather  than  quality,  amount  rather  than  kind.  We 
inherit  our  souls  as  we  inherit  our  bodies;  we  in- 
herit our  immortality  as  we  inherit  our  souls,  for 
immortality  is  soul-life.  It  is  the  common  inherit- 
ance of  the  human  race. 

Not  so  eternal  life.  This  is  spiritual  life.  It 
is  the  life  of  God,  and  of  all  holy  and  regenerate 
beings,  whether  men  or  angels.  It  is  not  chiefly 
duration  or  quantity.  It  has  its  seat  in  our  spir- 
itual nature — that  nature  which  comes  from  the 
Holy  Spirit  in  regeneration.  It  is  that  which 
causes  the  spirit  to  glow  and  shine.  It  fills  the 
whole  being  with  "righteousness  and  peace  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost."  It  is  quality,  essence. 
54 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


It  is  not  an  inheritance.  It  is  the  gift  of  God 
through  Jesus  Christ. 

In  his  soul-life  or  immortality  a  man  may  be 
educated,  genteel,  refined,  cultured,  high-toned;  he 
may  know  all  science,  and  in  thought,  feeling,  ac- 
tion may  become  almost  godlike;  but  no  degree 
of  culture,  intellectual  development,  or  genius  can 
ever  equal,  nor  be  a  substitute  for,  spiritual  life 
— the  life  of  God  in  our  spirit  nature.  That  is 
eternal  life. 

This  eternal  life  is  in  God  the  Father  (Jn. 
5:26)  as  an  eternal  and  necessary  endowment. 
The  Father  bestowed  it  upon  the  Son  (ibid)  and 
Jesus  was  commissioned  to  bring  it  to  light  in  the 
gospel  (2  Tim.  1: 10,  Revised  Ver.),  and  to  bestow 
it  upon  His  disciples  (Jn.  17:2)  upon  condition 
of  faith  in  Him  as  the  Savior  (Jn.  3:16);  it  is 
God's  glorious  gift  to  man  (Rom.  6:23)  and  is  a 
present  possession  of  all  those  who  accept  Jesus 
Christ  by  faith  (Jn.  3:36),  as  well  as  their  ever- 
lasting inheritance.  (Matt.  25:46.) 

The  Scriptures  frequently  exhort  us  to  seek 
and  to  lay  hold  on  eternal  life.  We  are  never  ex- 
horted nor  even  invited  to  seek  immortality,  though 
the  Authorized  Version,  through  faulty  rendering 
of  Rom.  2 :  7,  made  it  appear  that  we  were  to  ' '  seek 
for  immortality."  All  recent  versions  have  cor- 
rected that,  and  also  and  for  the  same  reason  they 
have  corrected  2  Tim.  1 : 10.  Thus  two  more  props 
of  Millennial  Dawn  and  all  other  soul-sleepers 
are  gone — killed  by  the  truth — a  correct  rendering 
55 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


of  the  Greek  text !  The  reason  why  the  Scriptures 
do  not  exhort  us  to  lay  hold  of  immortality  is  that 
immortality  is  our  inheritance ;  the  reason  why  we 
are  to  seek  eternal  life  is  that  it  is  a  gift  con- 
ditioned upon  those  who  seek  it  by  faith.  Paul 
tells  us  (1  Cor.  15:53)  that  "this  mortal  must 
put  on  immortality,"  but  he  is  not  now  speaking 
of  the  soul,  but  of  the  body  which  "is  sown  a 
soulical  body,  raised  a  spiritual  body."  The  resur- 
rected body  will  be  spiritual  and  immortal. 

Demons  are  immortal,  but  they  have  not  eternal 
life.  The  natural  man  is  immortal,  but  only  the 
regenerate  have  eternal  life.  By  blindly  con- 
founding immortality  and  eternal  life  Millennial 
Dawn  exhibits  its  sad  lack  of  spiritual  insight  and 
puts  up  a  bungling  soul-life  in  the  place  of  the 
greatest,  highest,  divinest  thing  named  in  all  the 
Bible  next  to  the  Divine  Name  itself — Eternal 
Life  !  We  have  never  encountered  anything  in  Mil- 
lennial Dawn  that  indicates  its  author  ever  had  any 
true  conception  of  eternal  life  at  all  other  than 
mere  continued  existence.  Eternal  life  is  not 
simply  a  life  that  has,  and  can  have,  no  end,  but 
a  life  that  is  in  some  sense  divine,  and  forever 
growing  more  divine ;  that  partakes  of  the  expe- 
riences, emotions,  and  holy  joys  of  God  Himself, 
and  of  all  angels  and  glorified  beings  in  the  uni- 
verse; where  the  whole  being  glows  with  an  ever 
brighter  radiancy;  "this  is  eternal  life — to  know 
God,"  and  by  Him  to  be  enriched  with  a  "far 
more  exceeding  and  eternal  weight  of  glory." 
56 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


This  we  believe  to  be  the  Scriptural  doctrine 
of  immortality  and  eternal  life.  It  has  the  glorious 
merit  also  of  satisfying  the  deep  hungers  of  the 
human  heart.  We  infinitely  prefer  it  to  the  gross 
materialism  or  Millennial  Dawn,  with  its  grave 
clothes,  soul-sleeping,  and  "oblivion,"  and  all  in 
constant  and  defiant  disregard  of  every  principle 
of  Biblical  interpretation. 

"Oblivion,"  Hades,  or  Heaven 

Few  Protestant  Churches  have  any  creed  state- 
ment of  the  Intermediate  State.  In  the  absence  of 
any  formula  of  belief  touching  the  state  of  de- 
parted souls  between  death  and  the  resurrection, 
many  Christian  students  and  teachers  have  as- 
sumed that  translated  saints  were  in  heaven,  and 
sinners  were  in  hell.  And  that  view  has  quite 
generally  obtained  in  Protestant  Churches.  But 
that  doctrine  is  fraught  with  difficulties  which  soul- 
sleepers  have  never  failed  to  make  the  most  of  to 
the  disadvantage  of  the  otherwise  orthodox.  If 
that  doctrine  be  true,  then  all  human  souls  must 
be  brought  from  both  heaven  and  hell  in  order  to 
be  present  at  the  general  Judgment.  It  seems 
an  inconsistent  doctrine,  that  after  millenniums  in 
heaven  and  thousands  of  years  in  hell,  souls  must 
be  brought  out  for  judgment.  These  incongruous 
situations  call  loudly  for  a  restatement.  Three 
ways  have  been  proposed;  and  each  has  its  advo- 
cates : 

1 — Give  up  belief  in  a  General  Judgment.  But 
57 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


the  doctrine  of  a  Judgment  is  too  deeply  inwrought 
in  the  woof  and  warp  of  the  Sacred  Scriptures  for 
that.  ' '  He  hath  appointed  a  day  in  which  He  shall 
judge  the  world  by  that  Man,"  etc;  "For  we 
must  all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ:"  "Then  shall  He  sit  upon  the  throne  of 
His  glory,  and  before  Him  shall  be  gathered  all 
nations."  These  and  a  score  of  other  literal 
statements  of  the  great  FACT  make  it  impossible 
to  set  it  aside  or  to  treat  it  as  figurative.  There 
will  be  one  General  Judgment  for  all  mankind. 

2 —  Assume  that  the  soul  "sleeps"  in  the  grave 
or  in  "oblivion"  between  death  and  the  resur- 
rection. Quite  a  number  of  Millennialists  and 
Second  Adventists  beside  Millennial  Dawn  have 
adopted  that  hypothesis.  "We  have  already  shown 
how  untenable  it  is.  It  involves  a  practical  denial 
of  the  real  nature  of  the  soul  as  an  organism  cre- 
ated in  the  "likeness  and  image  of  God."  It  is 
absolutely  unscriptural,  having  substantially  the 
whole  Bible  against  it.  It  also  generally  creates 
confusion  concerning  the  true  nature  of  the  soul 
and  the  spirit,  as  well  as  the  exact  distinction  be- 
tween immortality  and  eternal  life.  While  it  offers 
a  way  out  for  some,  it  can  never  be  generally 
adopted  by  Biblical  scholars. 

3 —  A  place  of  conscious  existence,  other  than 
heaven  and  hell,  for  all  human  souls  between 
death  and  the  resurrection,  is  not  only  a  necessity 
of  reason,  but  the  clear  testimony  of  the  Word  of 
God.   Departed  souls  take  their  places  in  Hades — 

58 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


Paradise  or  Tartarus — not  as  the  verdict  of  any 
Judgment,  but  upon  the  one  criterion  only — that 
their  names  are  written,  or  not  written,  in  the 
Lamb's  Book  of  Life. 

The  General  Judgment — which  will  take  place 
at  the  close  of  the  Intermediate  State — is  not  for 
the  purpose  of  deciding  who  shall  be  saved  and 
who  lost — who  shall  go  to  heaven  and  who  to  hell ; 
but  for  this  one  purpose,  namely — To  deliver  per- 
sonal rewards  and  retributions  to  each  human  soul 
"according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the  body."  "And 
the  dead  were  judged  out  of  the  things  that  were 
written  in  the  books,  according  to  their  works." 
It  is  one  thing  to  be  saved  by  faith,  it  is  quite 
another  thing  to  be  rewarded  for  works.  The 
Judgment  throne  is  the  place  where  "Whatsoever 
a  man  soweth  that  shall  he  also  reap"  makes  good. 
Is  it  not  possible  that  some  saints  shall  miss  their 
reward?  Is  it  not  possible  also  that  some  sinners 
may  escape  the  heavier  retribution  ?  In  every  case 
it  will  be  "according  to  the  deeds  done  in  the 
body. ' ' 

No  Souls  Now  in  Heaven 

In  his  sermon  on  ' '  The  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus ' ' 
John  Wesley  says,  "The  beggar  died  and  was  car- 
ried by  the  angels  into  Abraham's  bosom.  It  is 
indeed  very  generally  supposed  that  the  souls  of 
good  men  as  soon  as  they  are  discharged  from  the 
body  go  directly  to  heaven ;  but  this  opinion  has 
not  the  least  foundation  in  the  Oracles  of  God." 
59 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


In  this  opinion  Mr.  "Wesley  is  certainly  right. 
While  there  are  many  Scripture  texts  which  serve 
to  create  the  expectation  of  a  happy  place  for  the 
good  when  they  leave  this  world,  and  of  a  glorious 
heavenly  home  at  some  future  time,  such  as;  "I 
shall  be  satisfied  when  I  awake  in  Thy  likeness;" 
"At  Thy  right  hand  there  are  pleasures  for  ever- 
more;" "Thou  wilt  guide  me  with  Thy  counsel 
and  afterward  receive  me  to  glory;"  "To  depart 
and  be  with  Christ  is  far  better;"  "Then  shall 
the  spirit  return  to  God  who  gave  it,"  etc., — yet 
there  are  several  texts  which  seem  to  positively 
deny  that  any  human  soul  has  ever  readied 
heaven : 

"No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time."  (John 
1:38.) 

"No  man  hath  ascended  up  to  heaven."  (John 
3:13.) 

"David  hath  not  yet  ascended  into  heaven." 
(Acts  2:  34.) 

In  the  absence  of  any  statement  to  the  contrary 
these  texts  are  sufficient  to  establish  the  "analogy 
of  faith"  upon  that  point.  The  first  two  state- 
ments were  made  by  our  Lord  Himself,  the  last 
was  made  by  Peter  at  Pentecost,  and  was  said  of 
David,  who  had  been  dead  a  thousand  years.  Some 
have  thought  that  the  saints  were  permitted  to 
enter  heaven  at  the  time  of  our  Lord's  resurrec- 
tion, or  at  the  time  of  our  Lord's  ascension.  But 
Peter  made  this  statement  about  David  fifty  days 
60 


IMMORTALITY  AND  SOUL-SLEEPING 


after  our  Lord's  resurrection,  and  ten  days  after 
His  ascension. 

Paradise,  Home  op  Saints,  not  a  Twilight 
World 

Christ  went  to  Paradise  from  Calvary,  bearing 
upon  His  bosom  the  soul  of  the  repentant  thief, 
the  first  trophy  of  His  redemptive  scheme.  Laza- 
rus was  carried  there  by  the  angels,  from  poverty 
and  suffering  at  the  gate  of  Dives  to  the  glories 
of  Paradise.  About  every  time  the  clock  ticks 
some  one  closes  his  eyes  on  earth  to  open  them 
in  Paradise.  Every  hour  they  are  receiving  news 
from  earth,  and  no  doubt  are  thus  made  acquainted 
with  what  is  passing  here.  In  that  fashion  we 
are  "surrounded  by  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses," 
who  are  watching  with  intense  interest  the  progress 
we  make.  Are  they  not  more  interested  in  the 
victories  of  the  cross  and  the  working  out  of  the 
divine  plans  than  we  are?  What  celebrations  of 
victories !  Paradise !  Will  not  its  glories  and  ec- 
stasies be  about  all  we  can  stand  for  the  first  ten 
thousand  years?  Adam  and  Eve,  the  first  father 
and  mother  of  the  human  race — we  trust  are  there. 
Abel  is  there.  Though  never  permitted  to  see  the 
inside  of  the  earthly  Paradise,  the  gates  of  the 
celestial  Paradise  no  doubt  swung  wide  open  to 
receive  him  and  to  welcome  him  home,  the  first 
arrival.  Was  he  lonesome  ?  Well,  he  did  not  have 
to  wait  long,  for  they  soon  began  to  arrive;  and 
61 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


for  more  than  five  thousand  years  the  incoming 
procession  of  victorious  saints  has  not  halted  for 
one  hour,  day  or  night.  Enoch  walked  with  God 
three  hundred  years ;  and  one  day  he  walked  right 
out  of  the  sunset  glories  of  earth  into  the  morning 
splendors  of  Paradise.  Abraham  caught  a  glimpse 
of  its  unseen  enchantments  from  Mount  Moriah, 
and  soon  after  passed  its  portals  to  dwell  in  the 
celestial  splendors.  Moses  went  there  from  Mount 
Pisgah,  Aaron  from  Mount  Hor,  David  from 
Mount  Zion,  Daniel  from  Babylon,  or  the  royal 
palace  of  Persia,  Paul  from  Rome,  John  from 
Ephesus,  John  the  Baptist  from  Herod's  prison, 
Stephen  from  Jerusalem,  and  Jesus  from  Calvary. 
Isaiah  pours  his  soul  of  fire  into  its  songs.  All 
the  saved  of  earth  are  there.  More  than  ten  thou- 
sand million  of  the  earth  we  believe  are  there, 
pouring  forth  their  triumphant  anthems  of  re- 
demption and  praise.  0  Paradise !  Thou  art  not 
a  twilight  world. 


62 


Ill 

THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


"All  authority  is  given  unto  Me  in  heaven  and 
in  earth;  go  ye  therefore  and  teach  all  nations; 
baptizing  them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of 
the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost;  teaching  them  to 
observe  all  things  whatsoever  I  have  commanded 
you ;  and  lo !  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the 
end  of  the  world."— Matthew  28:18-20. 


CHAPTER  III 


Millennial  Dawn  Misrepresents  the  Purpose 
of  this  Gospel  Age,  and  Flatly  Denies  that 
God  Now  Offers  Salvation  Full  and  Free  to 
All  Men  Everywhere 

This  gross  error  is  one  of  the  fundamental  fea- 
tures of  Millennial  Dawn.  It  declares  that  this 
is  the  age  of  the  Church,  not  the  age  of  salvation 
for  all  men.  The  Church  is  now  on  trial ;  the  rest 
of  the  world  will  be  hereafter.  A  few  only  can 
be  saved  now,  and  these  for  the  special  work  that 
will  be  furnished  them  in  the  Millennium,  when 
they  will  be  kings  and  priests  and  teachers  and 
evangelists,  whose  duties  it  will  be  to  make  all 
mankind — the  resurrected  multitudes  of  all  ages — 
acquainted  with  Christ  and  His  salvation.  It  en- 
deavors to  build  this  strange  doctrine  upon  the 
following 

Faulty  Foundation 

1.  God's  promise  made  to  Abraham,  that  "in 
his  seed  all  the  families  of  the  earth  should  be 
blessed. ' '  ( Gen.  12 : 3 ;  28 : 14.)  "  All  the  nations 
of  the  earth."  (Gen.  18:18;  22:18.)  Evidently 
God  intended  to  consider  ' '  families ' '  and  ' '  nations ' ' 
as  exactly  the  same  in  this  covenant.    Jesus  is  the 

5  65 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


"seed"  of  Abraham,  and  it  is  through  Him  that  all 
families  or  nations  of  the  earth  are  to  be  "  blessed. ' ' 

Millennial  Dawn  proceeds  to  deny  that  all  the 
families  of  the  earth  are  blessed,  or  ever  will  be, 
with  the  present  order  of  things;  that  God,  in 
making  this  promise  to  Abraham,  meant  that  all 
mankind  should  be  saved  or  should  be  placed  in 
such  personal  relation  to  Christ  as  to  make  their 
salvation  practically  certain.  Since  that  purpose 
has  failed  and  will  continue  to  fail,  and  in  order 
to  protect  God's  honor  in  making  that  promise, 
it  feels  called  upon  to  invent  the  wonderful  Millen- 
nial Dawn  scheme  of  a  thousand  years  probation 
which  it  is  cock  sure  will  accomplish  that  purpose. 
How  kind  of  it  to  step  in  at  just  this  crisis  and 
save  the  honor  of  Jehovah !  What  would  have  hap- 
pened if  Millennial  Dawn  had  never  thought  of  it  ? 
It  is  terrible  to  contemplate. 

Now,  we  accept  the  promise  which  God  made 
to  Abraham,  but  we  do  not  feel  obliged  to  adopt 
nor  to  manufacture  any  plan,  other  than  the  Gos- 
pel Plan,  to  help  God  out  of  the  difficulty  of  ful- 
filling His  promises.  The  Millennial  Dawn  insti- 
tution is  a  pure  fiction  without  one  word  of  Scrip- 
ture authority  for  it,  and  very  much  Scripture 
against  it. 

On  the  contrary  we  affirm  that  God's  promise 
has  not  failed,  but  has  been  fulfilled,  and  is  being 
fulfilled,  and  will  continue  to  be  fulfilled  more 
and  more  until  the  end  of  time;  and  that  all  man- 
kind— all  the  nations  of  the  earth — are  blessed  in 
66 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


Jesus  Christ,  the  "seed"  of  Abraham,  in  this 
present  Gospel  Age,  and  in  the  following  ways: 

(1)  — By  the  gift  of  life.  This  earthly  life  is 
the  gift  of  God's  mercy  through  Jesus  Christ.  Had 
there  been  no  Redeemer  there  would  have  been  no 
people  to  redeem,  for  before  God  made  man  "the 
Lamb  was  slain  [in  the  divine  purpose]  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world."  (Rev.  13:  8.)  Had  no 
Redeemer  been  provided  the  human  race  would 
have  perished  in  the  first  pair.  God's  goodness 
would  not  have  permitted  Him  to  create  a  race  of 
beings,  subject  them  to  the  awful  disability  of  sin, 
without  also  providing  a  remedy  for  sin.  Jesus 
Christ  is  that  remedy — "The  Lamb  of  God  that 
taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world. ' ' 

(2)  — The  result  of  Christ's  ministry  in  this 
world  has  been  and  is  a  blessing  to  all  mankind, 
and  is  steadily  increasing  in  effectiveness  and 
value.  For  nearly  two  thousand  years  He  has  been 
a  saving  influence  in  the  social  health  and  progress 
of  the  world,  the  mightiest  force  that  has  ever 
been  felt  in  human  society.  Millennial  Dawn 
forever  belittles  Christ's  work  in  this  world,  and 
sneers  at  any  mention  of  moral  reforms,  diffusion 
of  knowledge,  development  of  science,  downfall  of 
despotism  and  slavery,  birth  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  growth  of  Christian  sentiment  and  en- 
liglitment,  and  world-wide  evangelization.  All 
these  go  for  naught  as  unworthy  honorable  men- 
tion. To  mention  one  subject  alone — War.  Be- 
fore the  birth  of  Christ  the  world  was  a  military 

67 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


camp,  and  wars  were  waged  for  conquest  and  re- 
prisal. The  Christian  spirit  has  so  far  permeated 
the  world  that  it  would  not  to-day  tolerate  another 
war  for  either  of  these  causes.  Japan  yielded  to 
the  Christian  moral  sense  of  the  world  when  she 
relinquished  her  demand  for  indemnity  of  Russia; 
and  America  wrote  the  parable  of  the  Good  Sa- 
maritan into  the  law  of  nations  when  it  espoused 
the  cause  of  Cuba.  If  there  shall  be  any  war  in 
the  future,  its  only  cause  can  be  fear,  distrust,  or 
misunderstanding;  and  Christianity  is  rapidly 
making  it  impossible  for  one  nation  to  fear,  dis- 
trust, or  misunderstand  another.  Thus  it  is  true, 
and  growing  more  true  daily,  that  the  seed  of 
Abraham  is  blessing  all  the  NATIONS  of  the  earth. 

We  take  it  that  the  blessing  which  Christ  has 
been,  and  is,  to  the  world  to-day  in  its  improved 
mental,  moral,  and  social  condition,  goes  far  to 
satisfy  the  demands  of  God's  promise  to  Abraham. 
But  Millennial  Dawn  insists  that  God's  promise 
means  that  every  family  of  this  earth  must  be 
saved,  and  every  individual  must  come  to  know 
and  accept  Christ  as  his  personal  Savior,  in  the 
Millennium;  and  it  demands  that  this  program 
be  carried  out  in  the  most  literal  sense.  That  is 
its  contention  everywhere  and  all  the  time.  So 
we  invite  Millennial  Dawn's  attention  once  more 
to  the  terms  of  the  promise.  "I  will  multiply  thy 
seed  as  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  as  the  sand  which 
is  upon  the  sea-shore;  and  in  thy  seed  shall  all 
the  nations  of  the  earth  be  blessed."  (Gen.  22  : 17, 
68 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 

18.)  Millennial  Dawn  insists  that  the  fulfillment 
of  that  promise  can  mean  nothing  less  than  the  con- 
version of  all  the  inhabitants  of  this  world ;  and 
if  not  now,  then  in  the  Millennium !  It  insists  upon 
the  fulfillment  of  that  promise  in  the  most  literal 
sense.  And  so  we  insist  upon  the  fulfillment  of 
the  promise  in  the  most  literal  sense  as  to  the 
NUMBER  of  people  involved.  The  number  con- 
verted must  be  as  innumerable  as  the  stars!  Has 
Millennial  Dawn  counted  the  stars  yet?  Recent 
photographs  of  star-clouds  in  the  Milky-Way  seem 
to  indicate  that  they  must  be  numbered  by  hun- 
dreds of  billions!  But  has  Millennial  Dawn 
counted  the  sands  upon  the  sea-shore!  Now,  one 
cubic  mile  of  sand  contains  grains  enough  to  rep- 
resent the  present  population  of  the  world 
TWELVE  BILLION  TIMES !  But  God  did  not 
limit  us  to  one  cubic  mile  of  sand,  but  to  the  sea- 
shore— all  the  shore  of  all  the  sea.  Does  Millen- 
nial Dawn  know  that  there  are  two  hundred  thou- 
sand miles  of  coast  line  on  this  planet,  and  that 
there  is  not  less  than  that  number  of  cubic  miles 
of  sand  ?  And  does  Millennial  Dawn  presume  that 
God  meant  to  say  with  any  approach  to  literalness 
that  the  number  of  people  who  should  be  saved  by 
personal  faith  in  Jesus  during  the  supposed  Mil- 
lennium would  amount  to  twenty-five  hundred 
thousand  billion  times  as  many  people  as  there 
are  now  living  on  this  earth  ?  Yet  it  takes  all  that 
to  literalize  the  "sands  of  the  sea-shore!"  If  one 
part  of  this  promise  is  to  be  taken  literally,  then 
69 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


all  of  it  must.  If  God  meant  what  He  said  as  to 
the  "blessing"  of  mankind,  He  meant  what  He  said 
as  to  the  number  to  be  "blessed."  If  He  spoke 
in  the  terms  of  hyperbole  as  to  the  number  in- 
volved in  the  promise,  what  authority  has  Millen- 
nial Dawn  to  literalize  or  in  any  way  to  cramp 
the  terms  of  that  blessing?  Such  a  procedure  is 
gross  assumption  and  folly.  Thus  the  whole  sys- 
tem of  Millennial  Dawn  falls  flat  upon  the  very 
text  on  which  it  always  relies  to  support  its  con- 
tention. It  rarely  prints  a  page  without  wringing 
in  that  promise  about  the  "seed"  of  Abraham 
blessing  "all  the  families  of  the  earth;"  and  al- 
ways insists  that  its  own  interpretation  of  what 
that  "blessing"  was  to  be  is  the  only  interpreta- 
tion possible !  That  is  egotism  and  absurdity  gone 
mad! 

(3) — But  Christ  is  "blessing"  and  evangel- 
izing the  families  and  nations  of  the  earth  to-day 
in  this  present  Gospel  Age.  His  gospel  is  being 
preached  in  every  country  of  the  globe.  Perhaps 
this  is  a  subject  of  grief,  as  it  is  often  times  of 
ridicule,  to  Millennial  Dawn;  for  it  never  misses 
any  chance  to  belittle  the  present  missionary  move- 
ment. But  God  is  blessing  the  work  and  will  con- 
tinue to  bless  it  in  spite  of  Millennial  Dawn's  dis- 
paraging attitude,  till  the  knowledge  of  God  shall 
fill  the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea. 

Of  course  it  looks  absurd  to  Millennial  Dawn. 
Why  shouldn't  it?  Hasn't  Millennial  Dawn 
taken  out  its  pencil  and  figured  it  out  a  hundred 
70 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


times  before  your  eyes,  and  shown  that,  at  the 
present  rate  of  converts  in  heathen  lands,  the 
Christian  can  never  overtake  the  heathen?  Of 
course  it  has.  Aren't  heathen  being  born  ten 
times  faster  than  they  are  being  Christianized? 
Of  course  they  are.  But  does  Millennial  Dawn 
ever  stop  to  think  that  that  very  same  reasoning 
would  prove  that  the  Roman  Empire  could  never 
become  even  nominally  a  Christian  State?  that 
Germany  could  never  be  converted?  that  England 
could  never  become  a  Christian  nation?  that  the 
United  States  is  forever  doomed  to  benighted 
heathenism?  that  no  nation  can  ever  become  con- 
verted to  Christianity  until  the  Millennium?  Cli- 
max of  egotism  and  absurdity. 

"Within  a  single  lifetime  every  door  of  the  world 
has  opened  to  the  missionary  of  the  cross.  The 
progress  of  the  gospel  in  India,  China,  Japan, 
Corea,  and  of  the  islands  of  the  sea  is  astounding. 
There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  on  this  earth  will  be  able  to 
hear  the  gospel  message  within  the  short  span  of 
a  single  lifetime.  Surely  the  "seed"  of  Abraham 
is  blessing  all  the  families  and  nations  of  the  earth ! 

2.  Millennial  Dawn  never  gets  weary  of  quot- 
ing, "He  that  hath  ears,  let  him  hear,"  and  then 
assumes  that  most  people  have  no  ears  to  hear; 
that  they  could  not  hear  if  they  wanted  to;  that 
God  has  given  the  hearing  ear  to  only  a  few  in 
this  Gospel  Age — which  is  simply  nonsense  !  These 
texts  mean  simply  that  Christ  exhorts  people  to 
71 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


use  their  ears,  their  understanding,  just  as  He  says 
in  Mark,  "Take  heed  what  you  hear!"  and  in 
Luke,  "Take  heed  how  ye  hear!"  To  undertake 
to  found  a  doctrine  upon  such  texts  and  such  inter- 
pretations as  that  exhibits  the  mental  caliber  of 
its  author.  If  people  to  whom  Christ  spoke  could 
not  hear  anyway,  did  He  not  exhibit  gross  igno- 
rance in  continually  making  His  appeals  to  them? 
Such  an  interpretation  impeaches  either  the  hon- 
esty of  Jesus  or  the  common  sense  of  Millennial 
Dawn !    Take  your  choice. 

3.  Millennial  Dawn  assumes  that  no  one  can 
be  saved  by  Christ  without  having  such  a  personal 
contact  with  Him  as  has  been  impossible  for  the 
heathen  to  have  in  this  age.  Since  Christ  is  to  be 
present  with  the  people  in  the  Millennial  Age,  all 
will  then  have  the  opportunity  to  know  Him  and  to 
come  under  the  influence  of  His  person ;  and  that, 
all  that  is  necessary  to  secure  the  salvation  of  the 
heathen. 

How  does  Millennial  Dawn  know  all  that? 
Millions  in  these  Christian  centuries  have  been  con- 
verted and  saved  who  never  saw  Christ,  never 
heard  Him,  never  read  a  word  that  He  said,  nor 
ever  saw  any  one  who  ever  did  see  Him.  Abraham 
never  as  much  as  heard  His  name,  yet  his  works 
were  counted  for  faith.  We  do  not  claim  that  a 
heathen  can  become  a  well-developed  Christian 
without  knowing  something  of  Christ  and  His  doc- 
trines; yet  we  ask,  Could  not  God  save  a  heathen 
72 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


on  practically  the  same  terms  upon  which  He 
saved  Abraham  ?  Does  not  His  Word  tell  us  ' '  that 
God  is  no  respector  of  persons ;  but  in  every  nation 
he  that  feareth  Him  and  worketh  righteousness  is 
accepted  with  Him?"  (Acts  10:  35.)  Does  He  not 
say  that  "the  Gentiles  who  have  not  the  Law  are 
a  law  unto  themselves?"  (Rom.  2:11-15.)  Does 
He  not  say,  "If  any  man  wills  to  do  His  will  he 
shall  know  the  doctrine  ? "  (John  17:7.)  Does  He 
not  place  the  responsibility  of  our  salvation  chiefly 
upon  our  own  conscience,  whether  we  are  Christian 
or  heathen?  Why  then  should  Millennial  Dawn 
feel  obliged  to  provide  another  Gospel  Age  in  order 
to  give  the  heathen  a  chance  ?  If  this  performance 
were  simply  a  harmless  amusement  we  should  have 
nothing  to  say;  but  it  is  pitiable  to  see  innocent, 
gentle  folk  led  astray  with  such  false  doctrines. 

4.  Millennial  Dawn  quotes  the  Authorized 
Version  where  our  Lord  says  to  His  disciples, 
"Many  I  say  unto  you  shall  seek  to  enter  in  and 
shall  not  be  able"  (Luke  13:24),  and  then  tri- 
umphantly shouts  that  only  a  few  can  possibly  be 
saved  in  this  Age ;  Jesus  says  so  !  But  has  Millen- 
nial Dawn  ever  taken  the  pains  to  inform  its  de- 
luded followers  that  the  Revisers  have  in  the  mar- 
gin of  that  text  brought  its  teaching  into  harmony 
with  the  "analogy  of  faith"  by  making  it  read 
as  all  correct  Greek  texts  read,  "Many  I  say  unto 
you  shall  seek  to  enter  in  and  shall  not  be  able, 
when  once  the  Master  has  risen  up  and  shut  the 
73 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


door!"  Thus  another  world-saving  doctrine, 
founded  upon  a  false  translation,  is  knocked  into 
' '  oblivion ' '  by  the  ' '  analogy  of  faith ! ' ' 

A  hundred  other  Scriptures  have  been  wrested 
and  tortured  into  the  support  of  this  fantastic 
system;  but  most  of  these  are  so  manifestly  erro- 
neous, not  to  say  silly,  that  it  seems  a  waste  of  space 
to  pursue  them  further.  Millennial  Dawn  has 
taken  six  volumes  to  utter  itself,  and  we  can  not 
be  expected  to  point  out  its  false  reasoning  and 
erroneous  interpretations  in  every  instance;  but  if 
what  we  have  already  said  is  true,  then  nothing 
can  break  it  down.  If  not  true,  our  contention 
fails.  We  are  willing  to  leave  the  matter  with  those 
who  do  not  want  to  be  fooled — those  who  have 
sense  enough  to  understand,  and  candor  enough  to 
admit  the  truth. 

Salvation  Full  and  Free  is  Offered  to  all  Men 
Now  in  this  Gospel  Age 

Upon  this  question  God's  Word  says  one  thing, 
and  Millennial  Dawn  flatly  says  another  thing. 
Salvation  by  faith  in  Jesus  Christ  is  now  offered 
to  all  people  everywhere,  and  pressed  upon  them 
with  most  persistent  urgency.  Millennial  Dawn 
denies  it,  and  in  these  words:  "Our  Lord's  instruc- 
tion was  that  His  people  should  preach  the  gospel 
in  all  the  world  for  a  witness — not  to  convert  all 
the  world,  but  for  a  'witness'  to  all  the  world. 
The  mission  of  the  gospel  is  to  select  the  kingdom 
74 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


class,  a  '  little  flock. '  "  ( "  People 's  Pulpit, ' '  Vol.  II, 
No.  8.)  Similar  statements  can  be  found  hundreds 
of  times  scattered  through  its  literature;  and  they 
make  a  square  issue  between  God's  Word  and  Mil- 
lennial Dawn.  So  it  becomes  necessary  to  point 
out  with  great  clearness  and  fullness  the  message 
of  the  gospel  to  lost  men  and  the  nature  of  the  in- 
vitations to  come  and  be  saved. 

We  wall  start  with  the  terms  of  the  Great  Com- 
mission: "All  authority  hath  been  given  unto  Me 
in  heaven  and  on  earth.  Go  ye  therefore  and 
make  disciples  of  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in 
the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Spirit ;  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things 
whatsoever  I  commanded  you ;  and  lo !  I  am  with 
you  always,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world." 
(Matt.  28 : 18,  19,  20.)  Can  an  honest  man  discover 
in  this  any  sign  that  all  men  were  not  included; 
any  foreknowledge  that  only  a  few  could  hear 
anyway ;  any  message  to  a  "  little  flock ' '  only  ?  Is 
it  not  as  wide  as  the  world,  as  deep  as  God's  love, 
and  as  honest  as  God's  heart?  Millennial  Dawn 
would  have  us  believe  that  Jesus  did  not  mean 
what  He  said;  that  His  generosity  was  gangrened 
with  a  disingenuous  proposal  to  all  men,  intending 
only  to  search  out  a  ' '  little  flock  ! "  He  was  send- 
ing them  out  with  offers  of  salvation  which  most 
people  had  no  power  to  accept,  and  whom  He  did 
not  want  to  accept! 

' '  Come  unto  Me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy 
75 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  (Matt.  11:28.) 
Is  not  this  invitation  made  in  good  faith  to  all  peo- 
ple everywhere  ?  Was  not  the  formula,  ' '  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden"  intended  to  include 
all  people  now  dwelling  on  this  planet?  If  so, 
what  warrant  has  any  person  to  say  that  God  is 
not  now  trying  to  save  all  mankind  ? 

"Behold  NOW  is  the  acceptable  time;  behold 
NOW  is  the  day  of  salvation. "  (2  Cor.  6:2.)  Paul 
here  quotes  a  noble  prophecy  from  the  49th  chapter 
of  Isaiah,  in  which  the  Gospel  Age  is  set  forth  in 
most  glowing  terms.  People  afflicted  with  millen- 
nium-phobia would  long  since  have  filched  this 
prophecy  from  this  Christian  Age  if  Paul  had  not 
reiterated,  "NOW  is  the  day  of  salvation!" 

"And  ye  shall  seek  Me  and  find  Me  when  ye 
shall  search  for  Me  with  all  your  heart."  (Jer. 
29:13.) 

"Let  the  wicked  forsake  his  way  and  the  un- 
righteous man  his  thoughts,  and  let  him  return 
unto  the  Lord,  and  He  will  have  mercy  upon  him, 
and  to  our  God,  for  He  will  abundantly  pardon." 
(Isaiah  55:7.) 

"Him  that  cometh  unto  Me  I  will  in  no  wise 
cast  out."    (Jn.  6:  37.) 

"If  any  man  thirst  let  him  come  unto  Me  and 
drink."    (Jn.  7:37.) 

"Ho  every  one  that  thirsteth!  Come  ye  to  the 
waters!  Yea,  come,  buy  wine  and  milk  without 
money  and  without  price."    (Isaiah  55:1.) 

"The  times  of  this  ignorance  God  winked  at; 
76 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


but  NOW  commandeth  all  men  everywhere  to  re- 
pent.   (Acts  17:30.) 

"Repentance  and  remission  of  sins  should  be 
preached  in  His  name  unto  all  nations,  beginning 
at  Jerusalem. "    ( Lk.  24 :  47 . ) 

"Ask  and  ye  shall  receive,  seek  and  ye  shall 
find,  knock  and  it  shall  be  open  unto  you;  for  I 
say  unto  you  that  every  one  that  asketh  keceiv- 

ETH  ;  AND  HE  THAT  SEEKETH  FINDETH  ;  AND  TO  HIM 
THAT   KNOCKETH   IT   SHALL   BE   OPENED."  (Matt. 

7:7,  8.) 

"I  declared  to  them  of  Damascus,  and  Jeru- 
salem and  Judea,  and  to  the  Gentiles,  that  they 
should  repent  and  turn  to  God."    (Acts  26:20.) 

"For  the  grace  of  God  hath  appeared,  bring- 
ing SALVATION  TO  ALL  MEN!"     (TitUS  2:  11.)     "  To 

the  'little  flock,'  "  says  Millennial  Dawn,  "Paul, 
you  are  mistaken  ! ' ' 

"As  many  as  received  Him,  to  them  gave  He 
the  right  to  become  children  of  God."  (John 
1:12.) 

"As  Moses  lifted  up  the  serpent  in  the  wilder- 
ness even  so  must  the  Son  of  man  be  lifted  up, 
that  whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish, 
but  have  everlasting  life."  (John  3:14;  also 
John  3: 16.) 

"The  high  priest  prophesied  that  Jesus  should 
die  for  the  nation;  and  not  for  the  nation  only, 
but  that  He  might  gather  together  in  one  the  chil- 
dren of  God  that  are  scattered  abroad."  (John 
11:52.) 

77 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


"Look  unto  Me  and  be  ye  saved  all  ye  ends 
of  the  earth,  for  I  am  God  and  there  is  none  else. ' ' 
(Is.  45:22.) 

"For  to  you  is  the  promise,  and  to  your  chil- 
dren, and  to  all  that  are  afar  off,  even  as  many 
as  the  Lord  our  God  shall  call  unto  Him."  (Acts 
2:39.)  If  Peter  had  not  applied  that  glorious 
prophecy  of  Joel  to  this  present  Gospel  Age,  you 
may  be  sure  that  Millennial  Dawn  would  long  ago 
have  told  you  that  Joel  meant  the  Millennium! 
But  Peter  settled  that  on  the  spot! 

"0  Jerusalem,  Jerusalem!  How  often  would 
I  have  gathered  your  children  together,  even  as 
a  hen  gathers  her  chickens  under  her  wings;  but 
ye  would  not!"  (Matt.  23:37.)  Jesus  weeping 
over  sinners  whom  He  could  not  save!  Does  He 
excuse  them  and  say  they  could  not  believe?  Mil- 
lennial Dawn  does.  No,  Jesus  says  they  would  not 
believe.  Who  knows  best,  Jesus  or  Millennial 
Dawn? 

"The  Spirit  and  the  bride  say  come;  and  let 
him  that  heareth  say  come ;  and  whosoever  will  let 
him  come  and  take  the  water  of  life  freely."  (Rev. 
22:17.) 

We  have  here  quoted  twenty,  and  these  are  but 
a  few,  of  the  promises,  exhortations,  and  invita- 
tions of  God's  Word  to  the  whole  world  of  unsaved 
men.  These  are  quite  sufficient  to  establish  the 
"analogy  of  faith"  upon  the  subject  of  God's 
mercy  to  lost  men;  and  according  to  Paul  (Rom. 
12:6)  and  Peter  (2  Pet.  1:20),  the  Scriptures 
78 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


must  be  interpreted  in  harmony  with  this  standard. 
Nothing  can  be  allowed  to  stand  out  against  their 
testimony.  No  limit  of  time,  nor  country,  nor  race, 
nor  condition,  is  ever  anywhere  suggested.  Sal- 
vation full,  present,  free,  and  universal  is  now  of- 
fered to  all  men  everywhere ;  and  it  is  an  impeach- 
ment of  God's  honor  to  call  in  question  His 
sincerity  in  issuing  these  invitations.  To  deny  the 
import  of  these  promises  is  to  convict  Jesus  of 
ignorance  or  dishonesty  in  making  these  offers. 
It  is  difficult  for  us  to  understand  how  any  sane 
man  can  get  his  mental  and  moral  vision  so  dis- 
torted, or  his  egotism  so  inflamed  as  to  thrust  his 
bungling  man-made  "Plan  of  the  Ages"  into  the 
very  face  of  God  in  opposition  to  all  these  promises 
of  mercy  to  all  unsaved  men !  We  know  of  nothing 
masquerading  under  the  name  of  Christian  that  is 
so  utterly  out  of  harmony  with  God's  plan  of  sal- 
vation revealed  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures! 

God's  Plan  Called  to  Naught 

It  is  nearly  nineteen  hundred  years  since  the 
Kingdom  of  God  was  inaugurated  at  Pentecost.  The 
campaign  which  the  Church  has  prosecuted  since 
is  under  the  direction,  approval,  and  consent  of 
God,  or  it  is  not.  If  it  has  neither,  then  it  is  the 
work  of  the  devil.  If  it  is  operating  by  the  au- 
thority of  God,  then  to  sneer  at  or  disparage  it 
must  be  blasphemy.  The  means  and  agencies  now 
in  operation  for  the  conquest  of  this  world — God's 
Holy  Book,  now  being  published  in  all  the  lan- 
79 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


guages  of  the  earth ;  the  Church,  many  of  its  mem- 
bers careless,  indifferent,  immoral,  but  millions 
of  them  true  and  faithful  and  Christlike;  the 
world-wide  missionary  movements;  the  Holy 
Spirit,  whose  office  it  is  to  awaken,  to  convict,  and 
to  regenerate  human  souls;  the  Son  of  God,  Re- 
deemer and  Savior,  who  "tasted  death  for  every 
man,"  who  has  commissioned  His  workers  and  has 
promised  to  be  with  them  unto  the  end  of  the 
world — these  are  the  energies  which  the  infinite 
wisdom  of  God  has  commissioned  to  go  forth  to 
the  conquest  of  this  world. 

Ages  have  passed ;  splendid  triumphs  have  been 
won ;  great  opposition  has  been  encountered ;  lofty 
barriers  have  been  surmounted;  yet  never  have 
there  been  such  encouraging  signs  of  progress  and 
of  final  triumph  as  at  this  hour!  Jesus  is  sitting 
upon  His  mediatorial  throne  and  reigning  in  His 
kingdom,  and  shall  continue  to  "reign  until  He 
hath  put  all  enemies  under  His  feet;"  and  "He 
shall  not  fail  nor  be  discouraged  till  He  hath  set 
judgment  in  the  earth,  and  the  isles  shall  wait  for 
His  law." 

No  one  is  fully  satisfied  with  the  result  already 
attained.  God  is  not  satisfied.  Jesus  can  not  be 
entirely  satisfied.  But  God's  infinite  patience  is 
still  prosecuting  the  campaign,  though  often  baffled 
at  the  door  of  human  hearts.  His  faithful  people 
will  not  discourage  the  workers,  nor  disparage  the 
plan,  nor  belittle  the  results.  No  one  can  do  that 
without  mocking  God.  Millennial  Dawn  holds 
80 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


itself  in  a  critical  and  unsympathetic  attitude 
toward  practically  all  that  has  been  done  to  save 
this  world  by  the  plan  that  Jesus  ordained  and  to 
which  He  has  pledged  His  support.  We  therefore 
say  unqualifiedly  that  the  attitude  and  spirit  of 
Millennial  Dawn  is  out  of  harmony  with  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel  and  of  the  Great  Commission. 

It  is  generally  so.  "When  any  man's  soul  gets 
infected  with  the  millennial  microbe,  his  spirit 
becomes  pessimistic,  he  withdraws  from  any  sym- 
pathetic co-operation  in  moral  and  spiritual  move- 
ments for  the  regeneration  of  society,  and  his  use- 
fulness as  a  soldier  in  the  Lord's  army  comes  to 
an  end. 

Discord,  Wailing,  and  Sorrow 

"The  various  creeds  of  to-day  teach  that  all 
of  the  billions  of  humanity,  ignorant  of  the  only 
name  under  heaven  by  which  they  must  be  saved, 
are  on  the  straight  road  to  everlasting  torment; 
and  not  only  so,  but  that  all  of  the  Protestants, 
except  the  very  few  saints,  are  sure  of  the  same 
fate."    ("Divine  Plan  of  the  Ages,"  p.  17.) 

This  is  Millennial  Dawn's  opinion  of  the 
Churches  of  Christendom  to-day.  From  this  it  is 
easy  to  see  how  it  utterly  misrepresents  the  spirit 
of  the  gospel,  and  misunderstands  the  very  terms 
under  which  God  now  offers  mercy  to  lost  men. 
Millennial  Dawn  is  a  dismal  system,  full  of  dis- 
cord, wailing,  and  sorrow.  It  can  see  nothing  good 
in  this  world,  even  though  it  is  a  world  which 

6  81 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


God  made  and  Christ  redeemed.  There  is  no  hope 
for  any  one  but  in  the  Millennium.  It  is  so  intoxi- 
cated with  this  dream  of  the  Millennium  that  it 
is  out  of  all  harmony  with  every  movement  in 
this  world  to  make  it  a  better  world,  and  to  bring 
in  the  Kingdom  of  God  here  and  now  by  the  di- 
vinely-appointed agencies  already  in  the  field.  Its 
spirit  is  not  that  of  the  gospel,  which  is  good 
news  to  all  men,  especially  to  those  who  long  for 
righteousness.  Millennial  Dawn  is  good  news 
chiefly  to  those  who  love  sin,  who  are  glad  to  learn 
that  they  do  not  have  to  repent  in  this  life,  as 
they  will  have  their  chance  in  the  Age  to  come. 
God  says,  ' '  To-day  ! ' '  Millennial  Dawn  says,  ' '  To- 
morrow ! ' '  God  says,  ' '  Now  is  the  accepted  time ! ' ' 
Millennial  Dawn  says,  "The  Millennium  is  the  ac- 
cepted time!"  God  says,  "Cry  out  and  shout, 
thou  inhabitant  of  Zion,  for  the  Great  and  Holy 
One  of  Israel  is  in  the  midst  of  thee ! ' '  Millen- 
nial Dawn  says,  "No  shouting  until  the  Millen- 
nium!" God  says, "Look  unto  Me  and  be  ye  saved, 
all  ye  ends  of  the  earth!"  Millennial  Dawn  says, 
"No  one  can  be  saved  except  the  'little  flock.'  " 
God  says,  ' '  Strive  to  enter  in ! "  Millennial  Dawn 
says,  "You  may  strive  all  you  wish,  but  you  shall 
not  be  able!"  Paul's  conception  of  the  joy  and 
triumph  of  salvation  is  chilled  and  blasted  into  a 
hoarse  croak.  Paul  conjugates  every  victory  and 
triumphant  experience  offered  in  the  gospel  in  the 
present  tense.  Millennial  Dawn  can  see  it  only 
as  "this  present  evil  world,"  a  twilight  fading 
82 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


into  a  deeper  gloom,  the  grave,  "oblivion."  It 
calls  itself  Dawn,  but  it  is  Twilight,  fast  sinking 
into  the  darkness  of  night. 

In  his  Yale  Divinity  Lectures,  Bishop  Simpson 
said:  "When  the  gospel,  under  the  preaching  of 
the  Christian  preacher,  shall  have  filled  the  whole 
earth,  then  indeed  there  will  be  a  new  heaven  and 
a  new  earth.  Until  that  time  comes  we  must 
preach  on.  Nor  must  we  be  diverted  by  any  sug- 
gestions that  society  can  not  be  reformed,  or  that 
the  Lord  will  come  visibly  to  cut  off  the  wicked 
and  reign  as  a  temporal  king.  I  have  respect  for 
the  good  men  who  teach  this  doctrine,  but  none 
for  the  doctrine  itself.  Analyzed,  it  shows  a  lack 
of  faith  in  God's  Word;  a  spirit  of  indolence  that 
is  unwilling  to  face  calmly  and  patiently  the 
thought  of  long  ages  of  toil  and  sacrifice;  a  spirit 
of  vengeance  that  calls  for  fire  to  come  down  from 
heaven.  They  think  it  easier  to  kill  men  than  to 
convert  them." 

The  "Little  Flock" 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  was  delivered  to 
Christ's  disciples.  In  Luke's  account  of  a  portion 
of  this  sermon  occurs  these  words:  "Fear  not, 
little  flock;  for  it  is  your  Father's  good  pleasure 
to  give  you  the  kingdom."  (Luke  12:32.)  Now, 
by  every  reasonable  implication  the  "little  flock" 
must  mean  the  disciples  whom  He  was  then  ad- 
dressing. To  this  "little  flock"  of  disciples  the 
kingdom  was  to  be  given,  and  that  in  the  most 
53 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


literal  sense.  And  it  came  to  pass;  for  on  the 
great  day  of  Pentecost  they  saw  "the  Son  of  man 
coming  in  His  kingdom"  (Matt.  16:28),  and  by 
the  terms  of  the  Great  Commission  the  kingdom 
was  literally  delivered  into  their  care  and  keeping, 
and  they  were  divinely  anointed  with  authority 
and  power  to  establish  it  everywhere. 

But  in  Millennial  Dawn  this  "little  flock"  text 
figures  about  as  conspicuously  as  the  "seed  of 
Abraham  blessing  all  the  families  of  the  earth," 
and  we  believe  all  out  of  proportion  to  its  im- 
portance; for,  according  to  Millennial  Dawn,  the 
only  thing  that  has  chiefly  concerned  God  from 
the  creation  of  the  world  to  the  end  of  time  is 
the  "little  flock."  The  patriarchal  dispensation, 
the  Hebrew  dispensation,  and  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation— all  these  are  for  the  one  supreme  pur- 
pose of  selecting  the  "little  flock."  So  scarcely 
a  page  is  printed  without  the  "little  flock"  ap- 
pearing upon  it.  And  by  such  a  course  of  padding 
and  exaggeration  things  that  in  the  gospel  are 
inconspicuous  and  apparently  unimportant  are 
crowded  to  the  fore  and  allowed  to  obscure  more 
important  truth,  or  to  dazzle  the  eyes  of  the  seeker, 
as  it  has  dazzled  the  eyes  of  Millennial  Dawn. 
The  fact  is  that,  in  common  with  their  country- 
men, these  disciples  were  looking  for  the  kingdom. 
They  were  almost  feverish  with  desire.  These 
words  were  spoken  for  their  reassurance.  They 
shall  have  the  kingdom,  so  fear  not,  "little  flock." 
He  often  used  this  metaphor  in  reference  to  His 
84 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


disciples.  He  was  the  Shepherd  and  they  were 
the  flock.  He  used  it  on  their  way  to  Gethsemane. 
Speaking  of  His  arrest  and  crucifixion,  He  said, 
"All  ye  shall  be  offended  because  of  Me  this  night, 
for  it  is  written,  I  will  smite  the  Shepherd  and 
the  sheep  of  the  flock  shall  be  scattered  abroad." 
(Matt.  24:31.)  They  understood  Him  correctly, 
whether  Millennial  Dawn  does  or  not,  that  they 
should  have  the  kingdom,  and  that  they  were  the 
"little  flock."  They  fully  understood  after  Pente- 
cost that  the  kingdom  had  been  solemnly  committed 
to  their  care,  and  they  never  after  proclaimed 
that  the  kingdom  was  "at  hand,"  but  went  every- 
where "preaching  the  kingdom  of  God." 

While  the  kingdom  which  was  given  to  them 
was  not  the  kind  of  a  kingdom  which  they  had  been 
looking  for,  nevertheless  its  spiritual  power  and 
glory  so  far  transcended  anything  of  which  they 
had  ever  dreamed,  that  we  hear  no  more  of  the 
semi-political  kingdom  which  the  Jews  were  hop- 
ing for.  There  were  some  Jewish  Christians  in  the 
early  Church  who  could  not  quite  give  up  the  old 
Messianic  hope  of  an  earthly  kingdom.  They 
would  interpret  Christianity  as  a  Reformed  Juda- 
ism. They  would  put  the  new  wine  of  the  king- 
dom into  the  old,  dried-skinned  bottles  of  the 
Jewish  system.  But  the  bottles  broke,  and  they 
were  defeated  in  the  First  Council  held  in  Jeru- 
salem. (Acts  15.)  They  and  their  successors 
then  shifted  their  hopes  to  a  Millennium,  and 
have  been  looking  for  one  ever  since. 

85 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


The  True  Kingdom  of  God 

But  the  vast  majority  of  the  followers  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  all  ages  have  had  no  sympathy  with 
these  false,  semi-political,  earthly,  and  material 
views  of  the  kingdom  of  God.  They  believe  that 
the  kingdom  of  God  is  a  real  kingdom;  that  it 
is  as  old  as  eternity;  that  it  is  as  vast  as  the  uni- 
verse of  God;  that  its  capital  is  heaven;  that  its 
King  is  God  Almighty ;  that  the  Son  and  the  Spirit 
are  associated  with  the  Father  in  upholding  its 
authority;  that  its  subjects  are  all  the  intelligent 
beings  in  the  universe  who  believe,  love,  and  obey 
God;  that  every  human  soul  that  is  redeemed  and 
saved  by  the  power  of  Jesus  Christ,  together  with 
all  angels  and  glorified  beings  are  the  subjects  of 
this  divine  kingdom,  and  belong  to  its  citizenship. 
The  Bible  is  not  the  kingdom;  the  Church  is  not 
the  kingdom ;  the  gospel  is  not  the  kingdom.  These 
all  are  means  which  God  is  employing  to  establish 
the  kingdom  in  the  hearts  of  men  and  to  reinstate 
its  authority  over  this  earth.  The  kingdom  of 
God  is  one,  and  not  one  kingdom  for  each  planet. 
It  is  the  moral  and  spiritual  and  eternal  system 
of  the  entire  universe.  It  is  to  establish  its  author- 
ity over  all  beings,  all  worlds,  suns  and  systems. 
It  is  not  to  be  established  anywhere  for  a  hundred 
or  a  thousand  or  a  million  years.  It  is  co-exten- 
sive with  creation.  It  began  in  the  dawn  of  eter- 
nity, and  will  continue  as  long  as  God  sits  on 
the  throne  of  heaven.  Christ  is  now  engaged  in 
86 


THIS  GOSPEL  AGE 


establishing  this  kingdom  over  this  world — a  re- 
bellious province.  He  is  now  reigning  in  His 
kingdom,  and  He  will  continue  to  reign  until  He 
has  put  all  enemies  under  His  feet.  Then  His 
mediatorial  work  will  be  done,  He  will  return  to 
this  world  to  raise  the  dead,  judge  the  world,  close 
the  volume  of  human  history  on  this  planet,  and 
"deliver  up"  the  kingdofn  of  God,  who  will  be 
forever  all  and  in  all.  Jesus  had  much  to  say  of  this 
kingdom,  but  never  one  word  in  behalf  of  a  per- 
sonal, temporal,  semi-political  reign  on  this  earth 
for  a  thousand  years!  And  any  man  or  system 
that  is  forever  trying  to  inject  that  nonsense  into 
the  heads  of  deluded  followers  does  not  represent 
Christ  at  all.  His  whole  propaganda  forever  be- 
littles the  thought  of  the  real  glory  of  Christ  and 
the  splendor  of  His  eternal  kingdom. 


87 


IV 

THE  MILLENNIUM 


"It  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die, 
And  after  this — the  Judgment!" 

— Hebrews  9:27. 


CHAPTER  IV 


THE  MILLENNIUM 

Millennial  Dawn  is  the  Propagation  op  an  Un- 
scriptural  Fiction  op  Second  Probation, 
Evangelization,  Trial,  Judgment,  and  Mil- 
lennium all  in  One 

This  strange  program  is  founded  chiefly  upon  two 
propositions — that  there  is  to  be  a  Millennium; 
and  that  probation  is  to  continue  beyond  this  life. 
This  chapter  will  be  devoted  to  a  discussion  of  the 
first,  namely,  Is  there  to  be  a  Millennium  and  a 
personal  reign  of  Jesus  Christ  on  this  earth,  to 
begin  at  the  time  of  the  Second  Advent,  and  to 
continue  one  thousand  years? 

The  only  apparent  Biblical  support,  so  far  as 
we  know,  which  this  millennial  idea  has  is  found 
in  the  first  eleven  verses  of  the  Twentieth  Chapter 
of  Revelation.  To  this  we  will  first  direct  our 
attention.  "We  place  here  the  passage  in  full,  as 
found  in  the  American  Revision: 

"And  I  saw  an  angel  coming  down  out  of 
heaven,  having  the  key  of  the  abyss  and  a  great 
chain  in  his  hand.  And  he  laid  hold  on  the  dragon, 
the  old  serpent,  which  is  the  devil  and  Satan,  and 
bound  him  for  a  thousand  years,  and  cast  him  into 
the  abyss,  and  shut  it,  and  sealed  it  over  him,  that 
91 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


he  should  deceive  the  nations  no  more,  until  the 
thousand  years  should  be  finished:  after  this  he 
must  be  loosed  for  a  little  time. 

"And  I  saw  thrones,  and  they  sat  upon  them, 
and  judgment  was  given  unto  them:  and  I  saw 
the  souls  of  them  that  had  been  beheaded  for  the 
testimony  of  Jesus,  and  for  the  Word  of  God,  and 
such  as  worshiped  not  the  beast,  neither  his 
image,  and  received  not  the  mark  upon  their  fore- 
heads and  upon  their  hands;  and  they  lived  and 
reigned  with  Christ  a  thousand  years.  The  rest 
of  the  dead  lived  not  till  the  thousand  years  should 
be  finished.  This  is  the  first  resurrection.  Blessed 
and  holy  is  he  that  hath  part  in  the  first  resur- 
rection: over  these  the  second  death  hath  no 
power:  but  they  shall  be  priests  of  God  and  of 
Christ,  and  shall  reign  with  Him  a  thousand  years. 

"And  when  the  thousand  years  are  finished, 
Satan  shall  be  loosed  out  of  his  prison,  and  shall 
come  forth  to  deceive  the  nations  which  are  in  the 
four  corner^  of  the  earth,  Gog  and  Magog,  to  gather 
them  together  to  the  war,  the  number  of  whom  is 
as  the  sand  of  the  sea.  And  they  went  up  over 
the  breadth  of  the  earth,  and  compassed  the  camp 
of  the  saints  about,  and  the  beloved  city :  and  fire 
came  down  out  of  heaven,  and  devoured  them. 
And  the  devil  that  deceived  them  was  cast  into 
the  lake  of  fire  and  brimstone,  where  are  also  the 
beast  and  the  false  prophet;  and  they  shall  be 
tormented  day  and  night  for  ever  and  ever." 

Millennialists  the  world  over  camp  in  this  chap- 
92 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


ter,  and  Millennial  Dawn  has  pitched  its  tent  here 
also.  If  we  are  to  consider  the  thousands  of  diver- 
gent, often  fantastic,  and  sometimes  beligerent 
attempts  to  interpret  this  passage,  we  shall  reach 
the  conclusion  that  it  is  a  difficult  problem,  and 
that  probably  no  one  has  yet  made  it  plain.  Why 
this  difficulty?  It  is  a  chapter  filled  with  figures 
and  symbols,  in  probably  the  most  figurative  and 
pictorial  book  of  the  Bible.  The  book  is  prophetic 
chiefly.  It  relates  to  things  that  "must  shortly 
come  to  pass."  Some  of  these  things  have  already 
taken  place;  some  are  still  future.  Prophetic 
writings  have  generally  been  understood  when  they 
were  fulfilled,  not  before.  So  we  presume  it  will 
be  with  this  famous  chapter.  To  take  this  chapter, 
with  its  figures  and  symbols,  and  interpret  all  the 
rest  of  the  Bible  by  it,  as  Millennial  Dawn  does, 
is  to  reverse  the  divine  law  of  interpretation, 
which  is  to  interpret  figurative  passages  by  literal 
statements  found  elsewhere  in  the  Scriptures.  This 
principle  we  pointed  out  at  length  in  the  first 
chapter  of  this  book,  and  showed  that  it  was  the 
method  of  Joseph,  Daniel,  Paul,  and  Jesus.  Mil- 
lennialists  generally  interpret  this  chapter  as  a 
literal  statement  of  what  is  to  take  place  in  this 
world.  Let  us  proceed  on  that  theory  and  see  how 
far  we  get. 

The  angel,  the  chain,  the  key,  the  abyss,  the 
dragon,  the  beheaded  souls,  the  wicked  nations, 
camps  and  armies — Gog  and  Magog — and  all  the 
rest  are  literal  persons  and  things.    "I  saw  an 
93 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


angel  come  down  from  heaven."  "Who  was  that? 
All  Millennialists  say,  "That  was  Christ."  But 
the  Book  says  it  was  "an  angel."  "Yes,"  they 
say,  "but  the  angel  is  a  figure  of  Christ."  The 
angel  is  a  "figure"  of  Christ,  is  he?  Well,  if  the 
very  first  verse  is  figurative,  who  knows  but  the 
whole  chapter  is  figurative?  And  if  the  whole 
chapter  is  figurative,  how  can  any  one  get  a  literal 
Millennium  out  of  it?  Thus  the  literal  interpre- 
tation which  is  so  much  relied  upon  to  establish 
the  doctrine  of  the  Millennium,  and  without  which 
no  one  can  possibly  get  a  Millennium  into  this 
chapter,  breaks  down  with  the  very  first  sentence. 

There  is  no  resurrection  of  saints  mentioned 
in  this  chapter.  The  saints  that  are  mentioned 
are  disembodied  souls,  specially  designated  as 
those  "who  had  been  beheaded  for  the  testimony 
of  Jesus,  and  for  the  Word  of  God,  and  such  as 
worshiped  not  the  beast,  neither  his  image,  and 
received  not  the  mark  upon  their  foreheads  and 
upon  their  hands."  These  specifications  indicate 
that  the  souls  whom  John  saw  were  martyrs  and 
eminent  saints,  singled  out  and  set  apart  for  this 
great  and  high  honor,  that  they  should  "live  and 
reign  with  Christ  a  thousand  years."  Perhaps 
this  is  Millennial  Dawn's  "little  flock."  We  have 
no  doubt  of  its  ability  to  appropriate  them  and  so 
to  twist  its  interpretation  of  this  chapter  as  to 
make  them  fit  perfectly  into  its  "Plan."  But  not 
without  some  difficulties. 

In  the  first  place,  the  "little  flock"  that  Jesus 
94 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


assured  of  the  kingdom  was  the  disciples  who  sat 
at  His  feet  when  He  delivered  the  ordination 
"Sermon  on  the  Mount"  to  them;  while  the  com- 
pany whom  John  saw  evidently  contained  many 
who  were  not  on  earth  at  that  time. 

In  the  second  place,  this  company  are  souls, 
disembodied  souls;  and  Millennial  Dawn's  "little 
flock"  are  not  to  be  disembodied  souls,  but  resur- 
rected saints!  In  the  third  place,  these  are  emi- 
nent saints  and  martyrs,  singled  out  from  all  the 
world  for  special  glory  and  honor.  In  the  fourth 
place,  Millennial  Dawn's  "little  flock"  are  not  to 
be  disembodied  souls  with  nothing  to  do,  but  resur- 
rected saints  having  the  entire  race  to  evangelize 
and  instruct.  That  is  exactly  what  Millennial 
Dawn  has  been  selecting  them  for  from  Allegheny 
to  Sweden  since  1877!  It  does  not  go  much  to 
the  heathen  for  them.  It  finds  that  it  can  get 
them  faster  and  with  much  less  expense  to  invade 
Churches  and  Christian  communities  for  them.  In 
the  fifth  place,  these  disembodied  souls  who  "lived 
and  reigned  with  Christ  a  thousand  years"  did  all 
this  while  the  rest  of  the  saints,  together  with  the 
infinite  multitudes  who  have  lived  since  Adam, 
were  all  "asleep  in  their  graves — in  oblivion" — 
and  all  this  during  the  very  time  that  the  "little 
flock"  was  expected  to  evangelize  them!  To  just 
an  ordinary  uninspired  reader  all  this  looks  in- 
congruous, not  to  say  impossible.  But  it  will  not 
bother  Millennial  Dawn  a  bit;  it  has  skated  over 
thinner  ice  than  that  a  thousand  times. 

95 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 

The  account  tells  us  that  "the  rest  of  the  dead 
lived  not  till  the  thousand  years  should  be  fin- 
ished." This  is  the  most  damaging  statement  of 
all  for  Millennial  Dawn,  and  it  fully  realizes  how 
fatal  this  sentence  is;  for,  if  everybody  except  the 
"little  flock" — all  the  infinite  multitudes  who  have 
ever  lived  since  Adam — are  to  remain  "asleep  in 
the  grave,"  in  "oblivion,"  then  the  whole  cam- 
paign of  world-wide  and  age-long  evangelism  that 
was  to  crowd  the  business  of  the  "Thousand 
Years"  falls  flat!  No  wonder  Millennial  Dawn 
feels  the  full  force  of  this  terrible  blow,  and  winces 
sorely !  But  it  meets  it  with  fortitude.  To  almost 
any  open-minded  seeker  after  truth  this  would 
be  quite  sufficient  to  discredit  the  entire  system, 
and  he  would  give  up,  feeling  that  he  was  on  the 
trail  of  an  error.  Not  so  Millennial  Dawn!  It 
does  not  give  up  that  easy.  Not  it.  It  has  found 
two  holes  by  which  it  can  crawl  out  of  the  diffi- 
culty. 

Crawfishing 

On  page  288  of  "The  Divine  Plan  of  the  Ages" 
is  a  footnote  telling  us  that  the  sentence,  "The 
rest  of  the  dead  lived  not  till  the  thousand  years 
should  be  finished,"  is  spurious!  That  is  the 
easiest  known  way  out  of  a  difficulty;  but  is  it 
either  candid  or  brave  to  rip  a  text  out  of  the  Bible 
simply  because  it  strangles  your  pet  hobby?  Pre- 
cisely that  is  what  Millennial  Dawn  has  done  in 
this  instance.  We  are  told  that  this  sentence  is  a 
96 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


spurious  addition  to  the  sacred  text  because  three 
or  four  manuscripts  do  not  contain  it.  One  of 
these  mentioned — the  Codex  Sinaiticus — is  earlier 
than  the  Fifth  Century,  while  the  other  numbers — 
1160  and  1209  of  the  Vatican  library — also  omit 
it.  And  upon  this  slim  foundation  Millennial 
Dawn  arises  and  solemnly  pronounces  the  sentence 
"spurious!"  "We  affirm  that  the  sentence  in  ques- 
tion is  just  as  genuine  as  the  rest  of  that  chapter, 
and  for  the  following  reasons: 

1.  There  are  seventeen  hundred  Greek  MSS. 
of  the  New  Testament,  all  of  them  more  or  less 
fragmentary;  not  one  of  them  has  the  New  Testa- 
ment complete.  A  portion  of  Scripture  is  not  dis- 
credited because  it  is  not  found  in  one  or  even 
several  manuscripts,  provided  it  is  found  in  others 
equally  valuable.  And  that  is  the  case  with  this 
sentence  in  question.  Three  or  four  MSS.  do  not 
have  this  sentence;  sixteen  hundred  and  ninety- 
seven  of  them  do  contain  it  if  they  have  the  book 
of  Revelation  at  all. 

2.  Millennial  Dawn  tells  us  that  the  Codex 
Sinaiticus  does  not  have  this  sentence,  and  since 
that  MSS.  is  earlier  than  the  fifth  century,  there- 
fore the  sentence  in  question  is  "spurious."  Ad- 
mitting that  the  sentence  is  not  in  the  Codex  Si- 
naiticus, yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  we  have 
several  other  manuscripts  of  practically  equal  value 
with  it — Codex  Alexandrinus  (London),  Codex 
Vaticanus  (Rome),  Codex  Ephraemi  Rescriptus 
(Paris),  all  of  about  the  same  age  as  the  Codex 

7  97 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


Sinaiticus ;  and  none  of  these  famous  MSS.  put  any 
discredit  upon  the  sentence  in  question. 

3.  The  sentence  is  found  in  all  of  the  Greek 
New  Testaments  issued  by  those  famous,  world- 
renowned  Biblical  critics — Griesbach,  Wordsworth, 
Lachmann,  Tregelles,  Alford,  Tischendorf,  and 
Westcott  and  Hort,  the  last  named  authors  now 
recognized  the  world  over  as  furnishing  the  un- 
challenged standard  of  the  New  Testament  text. 
It  was  Tischendorf  who  found  the  Codex  Sinaiticus 
at  the  convent  of  St.  Catherine,  Mt.  Sinai,  in  1859 ; 
and  he  issued  eight  editions  of  the  Greek  New 
Testament  during  his  lifetime,  and  Tischendorf 
never  pronounced  this  sentence  spurious.  Yet  Mil- 
lennial Dawn  sets  itself  up  against  all  this  array 
of  the  best  Biblical  scholarship  which  the  world 
has  ever  seen! 

4.  The  sentence  in  question  is  found  in  the 
Authorized  Version  of  the  English  Bible,  in  the 
Revised  Version,  and  in  the  American  Revision; 
and  there  is  not  a  note  or  reference  anywhere 
that  calls  its  genuineness  in  question.  The  Revised 
Versions  are  the  result  of  the  very  best  scholarship 
and  critical  skill  which  the  world  has  been  able  to 
produce  in  the  last  five  hundred  years;  and  any 
portion  of  Scripture  that  is  found  in  these  ver- 
sions may  be  set  down  once  for  all  as  having  a  just 
place  in  the  Sacred  Canon.  If  it  is  not  in  these 
versions,  one  may  be  certain  that  it  is  not  entitled 
to  a  place  in  the  Sacred  Volume.  This  sentence 
under  consideration  is  found  in  all  these  versions. 

98 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


There  is  therefore  not  a  cloud  upon  its  title  to  this 
honor. 

5.  Finally,  the  sentence  fits  into  the  Twentieth 
Chapter  of  Revelation  perfectly,  and  its  omission 
would  mar  the  whole  or  render  it  unintelligi- 
ble. 

These  reasons  are  sufficient,  we  believe,  to  settle 
forever  the  genuineness  of  the  sentence  under 
examination,  and  we  challenge  Millennial  Dawn  to 
cite  a  respectable  Biblical  authority  on  earth  that 
puts  this  sentence  in  dispute.  Now,  if  Millennial 
Dawn  thinks  it  can  build  up  its  "Plan  of  the 
Ages"  upon  so  "spurious"  a  foundation  as  that, 
it  has  some  surprises  coming  to  it ! 

Hunts  Another  Hole 

But  Millennial  Dawn  evidently  feels  that  it  has 
not  quite  succeeded  in  escaping  through  that  hole, 
so  it  hunts  another,  and  here  it  is.  On  page  289 
of  the  same  volume  is  the  footnote  which  shows 
us  the  hole  into  which  Millennial  Dawn  finally 
crawled : 

"However,  the  repudiation  of  this  clause  is  not 
essential  to  the  "Plan"  as  herein  set  forth;  for 
the  rest  of  the  dead — the  world  at  large — will  not 
live  again  in  the  full  sense,  in  the  perfect  sense 
that  Adam  lived  before  he  sinned  and  came  under 
the  sentence,  'dying  thou  shalt  die.'  Perfect  life 
without  weakness  or  dying  is  the  only  sense  in 
which  God  recognizes  the  word  life.  From  this 
standpoint  all  the  world  has  already  lost  life;  it 
99 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


is  dying,  and  might  now  be  more  perfectly  de- 
scribed as  dead  than  as  alive." 

There  you  have  it!  Let  the  sentence  stand  if 
it  must ;  Millennial  Dawn  is  not  going  to  down  just 
for  one  little  Scripture  that  stands  in  its  way! 
Has  it  not  wriggled  and  twisted  through  a  hun- 
dred worse  textual  difficulties  than  that?  Of 
course  it  has.  But  who  does  not  feel  saddened 
and  humiliated  that  the  Word  of  God  has  to  be 
subjected  to  such  jugglery  as  that — and  all  in  the 
name  of  Christian  truth  and  honor! 

But  let  us  look  again  into  the  hole  into  which 
Millennial  Dawn  last  crawled.  Although  it  juggles 
with  its  terms  and  confuses  their  meaning,  yet 
it  means,  if  it  means  anything,  that  these  infinite 
multitudes  of  dead  "lived  not  again"  in  the  re- 
generated life,  moral  and  spiritual  life,  until  the 
thousand  years  were  ended.  This  is  a  flat  confes- 
sion that  there  was  no  regenerated  life,  no  moral 
and  spiritual  life  given  to  these  countless  multi- 
tudes until  the  thousand  years  were  ended.  So 
here  again  Millennial  Dawn  is  cheated  out  of 
its  Thousand- Year-Evangelistic-Campaign.  Not  a 
thing  done  to  "bless  all  the  families  of  the  earth" 
during  the  entire  Millennium !  No  one  really 
lived,  no  one  converted,  no  one  evangelized,  no  one 
saved,  no  one  raised  from  spiritual  death  to  spirit- 
ual life  during  the  entire  thousand  years. 

Surely  that  must  be  the  meaning  of  the  sen- 
tence, for  Millennial  Dawn  says  it  is;  and  by  that 
admission  it  unwittingly  confesses  that  its  entire 
100 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


scheme  of  world-wide  evangelization  during  the 
Millennium  has  resulted  in  the  conversion  and 
spiritual  resurrection  of  not  one  human  soul !  If 
Millennial  Dawn  is  willing  to  leave  it  there,  we 
are.  Take  which  horn  of  the  dilemma  you  choose, 
or  crawl  into  whichever  hole  you  prefer,  your  Mil- 
lennial Dawn  scheme  of  Universalism  has  gone 
where  a  thousand  other  silly  inventions  of  men 
have  gone! 

Millennium  Without  a  Kingdom 

Nearly  all  Millennialists  insist  that  Christ's 
reign  on  this  earth  for  a  thousand  years  is  in  His 
kingdom.  But  no  kingdom  is  mentioned  in  this 
chapter,  no  throne  but  judgment  thrones,  no 
crown,  no  capital,  no  court,  no  inauguration,  no 
setting  up  of  a  kingdom.  All  those  ideas  and 
many  more  have  been  read  into  this  chapter  from 
without.  Indeed,  there  is  very  little  in  the  chap- 
ter that  even  suggests  a  kingdom.  It  says  that  a 
special  class  of  martyrs  and  eminent  saints  "lived 
and  reigned  with  Christ  a  thousand  years, ' '  says  it 
twice,  but  does  not  tell  us  where  this  occurred. 
And  there  is  not  one  word  in  the  chapter  to  indi- 
cate that  it  took  place  on  this  earth. 

The  common  Millennial  notion  is  that  when 
Christ  comes  again  He  will  raise  all  the  saints  and 
set  up  His  kingdom  on  this  earth  and  reign  over 
the  saints  for  a  period  of  one  thousand  years ;  that 
at  the  close  of  this  period  the  unsainted  dead  will 
be  raised,  and  that  all  will  then  be  judged;  the 
101 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


saints  will  then  be  admitted  to  heaven,  and  the 
sinners  will  be  banished  from  His  presence  for- 
ever, and  human  history  on  this  planet  will  have 
come  to  an  end.  This  is  a  fine  program,  but  most 
of  it  is  not  even  hinted  at  in  the  chapter  under 
consideration. 

Now  Millennial  Dawn  comes  forward  with  an 
exceedingly  plausible  and  unscriptural  "Plan," 
and  insists  that  there  are  two  resurrections,  but 
that  they  are  not  separated  in  "time,"  but  in 
honor;  the  first  resurrection  is  a  "choice"  resur- 
rection, that  is  a  resurrection  of  the  saints — the 
"little  flock;"  the  second  resurrection,  occurring 
at  the  same  time,  is  of  the  non-Christian  people  of 
the  whole  world,  all  who  have  ever  lived  on  this 
earth  from  the  creation  of  Adam  to  the  coming  of 
Christ  at  the  end  of  time.  Immediately  following 
the  resurrection,  the  kingdom  of  Christ  will  be  set 
up  on  this  earth,  and  in  this  kingdom  Christ  will 
reign  with  His  saints  over  the  rest  of  mankind 
for  one  thousand  years.  During  this  period  the 
evangelization  of  all  mankind  will  be  prosecuted 
with  great  vigor  until  the  last  rebel  shall  have  a 
chance  to  surrender  to  King  Jesus. 

Of  course  this  fine  program  has  been  read  into 
this  chapter,  for  it  is  not  there,  nor  even  a  hint 
of  it.  There  is  no  suggestion  of  any  such  evan- 
gelistic campaign  in  this  chapter,  nor  anywhere 
else  in  the  Bible.  We  can  find  no  statement  be- 
tween the  lids  of  the  Bible  that  creates  the  least 
expectation  that  at  Christ's  coming  there  will  be 
102 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


any  one  converted,  or  any  attempt  to  convert  any 
one.  The  vast  multitudes  that  are  to  turn  unto 
the  Lord  at  the  time  of  the  Second  Advent  are  all 
in  the  imagination  of  Millennial  Dawn.  That  the 
Lord  is  coming  here  to  spend  a  thousand  years  in 
directing  a  vast  missionary  propaganda  is  also  in 
the  same  place! 

But  there  is  something  quite  definite  upon  the 
subject  in  the  Scriptures,  and  that  can  be  found 
in  Luke  4 : 18,  19.  Our  Lord  made  His  inaugural 
address  in  His  home  town,  Nazareth,  near  the  be- 
ginning of  His  ministry,  quoting  as  the  basis  of 
His  authority  from  Isaiah  61,  "The  spirit  of  the 
Lord  is  upon  Me,  because  He  anointed  Me  to  preach 
good  tidings  to  the  poor:  He  hath  sent  Me  to  pro- 
claim release  to  the  captives,  and  recovering  of 
sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are 
bruised,  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the 
Lord. ' '  That  was  Christ 's  mission,  and  that  is  and 
has  been  the  message  of  the  gospel  for  nearly  nine- 
teen hundred  years;  and  that  will  continue  to  be 
the  proclamation  of  salvation  to  all  "families"  and 
"nations"  till  Christ  comes  again. 

Now,  if  Millennial  Dawn  will  turn  to  that 
chapter  from  which  Christ  took  His  text,  it  will 
find  that  Jesus  did  not  quote  the  entire  passage. 
He  closed  the  quotation  with  that  item  of  the 
prophecy  which  said,  "to  proclaim  the  acceptable 
year  of  the  Lord."  That  was  indeed  the  business 
of  His  first  visit;  but  the  prophecy  says  more: 
"And  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God."  That 
103 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


part  of  the  prophecy  is  reserved  for  the  Second 
Advent.  It  must  be  fulfilled  then  or  the  prophecy 
utterly  fails.  It  will  not  fail.  When  He  comes 
again,  it  will  not  be  to  evangelize  as  at  the  first, 
but  to  sit  upon  a  throne  of  judgment  and  to  de- 
clare, ■ '  The  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God ! ' '  That 
is  the  business  of  His  Second  Coming,  and  it  does 
not  look  much  like  Millennial  Dawn's  thousand 
years  of  probation  and  evangelism!  How  a  little 
honest  Scripture  punctures  such  an  inflated 
"Plan"  and  dispels  the  fog  that  has  gathered  in 
the  "Dawn!" 

Inauguration  op  the  Kingdom 

Believing  what  we  have  already  several  times 
pointed  out,  that  the  figurative  portions  of  Scrip- 
ture must  be  interpreted  by  literal  statements 
found  elsewhere  in  the  Scriptures  also,  and  with 
the  full  purpose  of  applying  this  canon  of  inter- 
pretation to  this  famous  chapter,  we  come  now 
to  ask,  When  was  Christ's  kingdom  inaugurated 
or  set  up  ?  Is  that  past,  or  is  it  still  future  ?  Our 
answer  is  that  Christ's  kingdom,  called  by  Mat- 
thew the  "kingdom  of  heaven,"  by  all  the  other 
writers  "the  kingdom  of  God,"  was  "set  up" 
during  Christ's  first  visit  to  this  world.  It  was 
formally  inaugurated  at  Pentecost.  We  base  this 
affirmation  upon  the  following  literal  statements 
of  Scripture: 

1 — The  Grant  of  Authority  to  Set  up  a  King- 
dom.— About  the  first  glimpse  we  get  of  the  king- 
104 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


dom  is  in  the  vision  of  Daniel  the  Prophet.  (Dan. 
2 : 13,  14. )  "I  saw  in  the  night  a  vision,  and  be- 
hold, one  like  the  Son  of  man  came  with  the  clouds 
of  heaven,  and  came  to  the  Ancient  of  Days;  and 
they  brought  Him  near  before  Him ;  and  there  was 
given  Him  dominion  and  glory  and  a  kingdom; 
that  all  people,  nations,  and  languages  should 
serve  Him;  His  dominion  is  an  everlasting  do- 
minion, which  shall  not  pass  away,  and  His  king- 
dom that  which  shall  not  be  destroyed." 

This  seems  to  be  a  scene  of  splendor  in  the 
throne  room  of  heaven.  The  Ancient  of  Days — 
God  the  Father — is  on  the  throne;  before  Him  is 
brought  one  like  the  Son  of  man — that  is  Christ 
the  Son;  a  kingdom  is  given  unto  Him — that  we 
may  suppose  is  His  commission  and  authority  to 
proceed  to  the  earth  and  reinstate  the  Kingdom 
of  God  which  man  by  rebellion  had  overthrown. 
It  is  one  of  the  first  scenes  in  the  drama  of  the 
world's  redemption. 

If  our  most  distant  planet,  Neptune,  should 
conclude  to  defy  the  sun's  authority  and  break 
away  from  his  power,  choosing  a  path  of  its  own 
tangent  to  its  present  orbit,  what  could  be  done  to 
restore  the  sun's  authority?  Should  the  entire 
solar  system  leave  its  present  place  and  pursue  the 
rebellious  wanderer?  Or  should  the  planet  Jupi- 
ter, next  in  power  and  glory  to  the  sun  itself,  be 
commissioned  to  pursue,  overtake,  and  by  his  su- 
perior attraction,  call  back  the  rebellious  Neptune 
and  restore  him  to  his  orbit;  and  when  this  task 
105 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


is  completed,  deliver  up  his  commission  to  the 
great  monarch  of  the  solar  system,  that  the  sun 
may  be  all  and  in  all?  This  in  the  material  uni- 
verse is  analogous  to  what  our  Lord  was  commis- 
sioned to  do  in  the  spiritual  universe — to  win  back 
a  world  that  had  broken  from  its  orbit  of  obedience 
and  become  a  moral  wanderer,  to  restore  it  to  its 
orbit  of  love  and  loyalty  to  the  Throne  and  Person 
of  God.  In  Scriptural  language,  it  is  the  setting 
up  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth. 

2 — Nebuchadnezzar's  Dream.  (Daniel  2.)  — 
This  was  a  dream  of  a  metallic  image,  whose 
head  was  of  gold ;  breast  and  arms  of  silver ;  belly 
and  thighs  of  brass;  legs  of  iron;  feet  of  iron  and 
clay.  "And  the  form  thereof  was  terrible."  A 
stone  was  cut  out  of  the  mountain,  smote  the 
image  upon  its  feet,  toppled  it  over,  ground  it  to 
powder,  which  the  wind  blew  away;  the  stone 
grew  to  be  a  great  mountain,  and  then  it  filled 
the  whole  earth. 

Biblical  scholars  generally  agree  that  the  head 
of  gold  meant  the  king  and  kingdom  of  Babylon; 
the  silver  breast  and  arms  the  Medo-Persian  em- 
pire; the  brass  belly  and  thighs  the  Macedonian 
or  Greek  empire ;  the  iron  legs  the  Roman  Empire ; 
the  feet  the  provinces  or  kingdoms  into  which  the 
Empire  was  finally  broken  up.  In  reference  to 
the  Stone  smiting  and  crushing  the  image,  Daniel 
says,  "In  the  days  of  these  kings  shall  the  God 
of  heaven  set  up  a  kingdom,"  etc.  This  is  gener- 
ally recognized  as  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  The 
106 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


time  of  the  setting  up  of  this  kingdom  was  "in  the 
days  of  these  kings, ' '  or  while  the  image  was  yet 

STANDING  IN  THE  PERSON  OP  THE  ROMAN  EMPEROE. 

That  means  that  Christ's  kingdom  was  set  up  in 
connection  with  His  first  visit  to  this  world.  If 
it  was  set  up  at  that  time,  it  is  not  waiting  to  be 
set  up  at  some  future  time. 

All  Millennialists  fly  into  a  passion  at  this 
point,  for  they  recognize  how  damaging  these  facts 
are  to  their  pet  hobby.  They  forever  insist  that 
His  kingdom  is  to  be  set  up  when  He  comes  again. 
But  how  is  it  possible  to  make  His  next  visit 
occur  "in  the  days  of  these  kings?"  If  they  could 
only  keep  that  image  standing,  all  the  rest  would 
be  easy.  So  they  resort  to  every  possible  device 
to  accomplish  it.  Rev.  Uriah  Smith  does  it  easy 
enough.  The  two  iron  legs  of  the  image  represent 
the  Eastern  and  the  "Western  divisions  of  the 
Roman  Empire.  The  ten  toes  represent  the  prov- 
inces or  kingdoms  into  which  the  Empire  crumbled. 
The  ten  modern  European  nations  are  those  ten 
kingdoms.  Therefore,  the  image  is  yet  standing: 
How  easy!  Beautiful!  The  first  fault  with  this 
is  that  it  is  not  true ;  and  the  second  fault  is  that 
it  puts  all  ten  toes  on  one  foot,  and  none  on  the 
other!  "We  do  not  wonder  that  Daniel  said  to  the 
king,  "The  form  of  the  image  was  terrible." 

Millennial  Dawn — always  long  on  fancies  and 
short  on  fact — has  the  usual  two  holes  to  crawl 
out  of ;  and  here  is  the  first  one :  ' '  The  iron  empire, 
Rome,  was  by  far  the  strongest,  and  continued 
107 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


longer  than  its  predecessors.  In  fact,  the  Roman 
Empire  still  continues,  as  represented  in  the  na- 
tions of  Europe.  The  division  is  represented  in 
the  ten  toes  of  the  image."  ("Plan  of  the  Ages," 
page  253. )  This  is  the  same  hole  that  Uriah  Smith 
went  into.  Is  not  that  bright?  Might  as  well  say 
that  the  Medo-Persian  Empire  still  stands  as  rep- 
resented by  the  nomadic  tribes  of  "Western  and 
Southern  Asia.  Any  man  who  knows  history,  and 
has  an  honest  purpose  not  to  deceive,  knows  that 
such  an  interpretation  is  childish,  not  to  say  false. 

Millennial  Dawn  evidently  feels  that  way  some- 
what, and  so  it  crawls  out  of  this  hole  also:  "And 
in  the  days  of  these  kings  [the  kingdoms  repre- 
sented by  the  toes,  the  so-called  'Christian  king- 
doms,' or  'Christendom']  shall  the  God  of  heaven 
set  up  a  kingdom,"  etc.  Image  standing  for 
twenty-five  hundred  years  on  its  toes!  And  those 
toes  the  Christian  nations  as  the  representatives 
of  the  Roman  Empire!  The  bright  brain  that  is 
capable  of  conceiving  all  that  will  have  no  trouble 
with  any  Biblical  problem.  Indeed,  it  should  not 
be  compelled  to  waste  its  talents  on  mere  Bible 
problems;  it  should  engage  its  energes  upon  Plato 
or  Butler's  Analogy,  or  the  Fourth  Dimension. 

But  how  far  all  these  makeshifts  miss  the  mark. 
Look  again  at  verses  34,  35.  The  Stone  that  was 
cut  out  of  the  mountain  smote  the  image  upon  its 
feet  and  broke  the  clay,  iron,  brass,  silver,  and 
gold  to  pieces,  and  ground  it  to  powder  so  that 
the  wind  blew  it  all  away!  That  describes  an 
108 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


event  that  never  could  happen  unless  the  image 
was  yet  standing  in  the  integrity  of  one  of  those 
four  empires.  It  did  happen  while  the  image  was 
represented  by  the  Roman  Empire.  If  not,  then 
we  have  the  absurdity  of  the  Stone  crushing  the 
image  which  had  already  been  "dust  which  the 
wind  blew  away, ' '  for  fifteen  hundred  years !  This 
attempt  to  "galvanize"  the  dust- fragments  of  the 
Roman  Empire  so  as  to  keep  the  image  yet  stand- 
ing is  about  equal  to  the  absurdity  of  organizing, 
for  a  somewhat  similar  purpose,  during  the  Middle 
Ages,  "The  Holy  Roman' Empire,"  which  was  not 
an  empire,  not  Roman,  and  not  holy. 

3 — The  Kingdom  Proclaimed  as  at  Hand. —  (1) 
By  John  the  Baptist  (Matt.  3:1,  2),  "In  those 
days  came  John  preaching  in  the  wilderness  of 
Judea  and  saying,  Repent,  for  the  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand." 

(2)  By  our  Lord  Himself  (Matt.  4:17), 
1 '  From  that  time  J esus  began  to  preach  and  to  say, 
Repent,  for  the  kindom  of  heaven  is  at  hand." 

(3)  By  the  Twelve  (Matt.  10:7),  "And  as 
you  go,  preach,  saying,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
at  hand." 

(4.)  By  the  Seventy  (Luke  10:9),  "And  say 
unto  them,  The  kingdom  of  God  is  come  nigh 
unto  you. ' ' 

The  Greek  word  which  is  here  translated  "at 
hand"  is  eggizo,  which  means  to  be  near  in  time 
or  place;  and  when  uttered  by  each  of  these  four 
persons  or  companies,  it  was  a  very  emphatic 
109 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


proclamation  of  the  nearness  of  the  kingdom.  It 
was  close  by,  at  hand!  And  it  created  exactly 
that  impression,  and  aroused  the  whole  country  to 
a  fever  of  expectancy.  The  immediate  inaugura- 
tion of  the  kingdom  therefore  becomes  a  very  nec- 
essary part  of  this  program.  If  it  was  not  set  up 
at  that  time  then  these  almost  delirious  procla- 
mations become  farcical  in  the  extreme.  No  other 
event  could  possibly  satisfy  the  expectations  which 
these  announcements  created. 

So  plain  was  this  message  and  so  fully  was  it 
understood  by  the  disciples  that  they  never  ceased 
expecting  that  the  kingdom  would  quickly  be  es- 
tablished. They  constantly  looked  for  it,  and  fre- 
quently talked  about  it.  The  very  day  that  our 
Lord  ascended  from  Mount  Olivet  they  asked  Him, 
"Lord,  wilt  Thou  at  this  time  restore  the  kingdom 
to  Israel?"  After  Pentecost  there  is  no  instance 
of  any  one  proclaiming,  "The  kingdom  of  heaven 
is  at  hand."  Pentecost  fulfilled  all  the  conditions 
of  that  proclamation.  The  message  ended.  The 
kingdom  had  come.  No  one  is  now  authorized  to 
go  forth  proclaiming,  "The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
at  hand!"  And  Millennial  Dawn  knows  it — and 
dare  not  make  that  proclamation.  If  it  does,  it 
speaks  without  the  authority  of  God,  and  in  spite 
of  His  authority. 

4 — The  Kingdom  Was  to  be  Established  While 
Some  of  the  Disciples  Were  Yet  Alive. — Matt. 
16:28,  "Verily  I  say  unto  you,  There  be  some 
standing  here  that  shall  not  taste  of  death  till  they 
110 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


have  seen  the  Son  of  man  coming  in  His  king- 
dom. ' ' 

Mark  9:1,  "Verily  I  say  unto  you,  There  be 
some  that  stand  here  which  shall  not  taste  of  death 
till  they  have  seen  the  kingdom  of  God  come  with 
power. ' ' 

Luke  9:27,  "But  I  tell  you  of  a  truth,  that 
there  be  some  standing  here  which  shall  not 
taste  of  death  till  they  see  the  kingdom  of  God." 

These  texts  are  very  literal  and  sufficiently 
plain.  "The  kingdom  of  God,"  "The  kingdom 
of  God  coming  with  power, ' '  and  1 '  The  Son  of  man 
coming  in  His  kingdom"  all  refer  to  the  same 
event.  That  was  fulfilled  in  every  particular  at 
Pentecost,  when  some  of  them — all  except  Judas — ■ 
"saw  the  Son  of  man  coming  in  His  kingdom;" 
when  they  saw  "the  kingdom  of  God  come  with 
power."  All  Millennialists  feel  the  overwhelm- 
ing force  of  this,  and  of  course  wriggle  around 
and  endeavor  to  neutralize  its  power.  Millennial 
Dawn  is  especially  fruitful  in  its  usual  makeshifts. 
It  finds  the  usual  two  holes  to  crawl  out  of,  and 
here  is  the  first : 

"The  Church  at  present,  therefore,  is  not  the 
Kingdom  of  God  set  up  in  power  and  glory,  but 
in  its  incipient,  embryo  condition,"  ("Divine  Plan 
of  the  Ages,"  pages  282,  284.)  So  what  Christ 
really  meant  was  not  that  they  should  see  "the 
Son  of  man  coming  in  His  kingdom"  at  Pente- 
cost, but  they  should  see  the  kingdom  come  in  an 
"incipient"  stage  in  the  Church.  Christ  was  mis- 
Ill 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


taken  when  He  said  that  they  should  see  "The 
kingdom  of  God  come  with  power;"  what  He 
should  have  said  was  that  they  were  to  see  the  king- 
dom of  God  in  an  "embryo  condition"  in  the 
Church.  That  is,  the  Church  is  the  egg  which  will 
hatch  out  the  kingdom  in  the  Millennium  !  This 
might  do  for  a  Roman  Catholic,  but  we  know  of 
no  respectable  Protestant  in  the  world  who  iden- 
tifies the  Church  as  the  kingdom.  The  universal 
doctrine  of  Protestantism  is  that  the  Church  is  not 
the  kingdom,  but  a  means  only  to  the  kingdom. 

The  other  hole  out  of  which  Millennial  Dawn 
crawls  is  this:  The  promise  of  Christ  that  His 
disciples  should  "see  the  kingdom  of  God,"  "the 
kingdom  of  God  come  with  power,"  and  "the  Son 
of  man  coming  in  His  kingdom,"  was  fulfilled  in 
the  Transfiguration,  when  Jesus  was  transfigured 
before  the  disciples.  That  is  the  common  escape 
for  all  Millennialists,  and  it  is  so  superficial  that 
it  seems  hardly  entitled  to  serious  attention.  The 
fact  is  that  there  is  not  one  suggestion  of  a  king- 
dom in  the  entire  account  of  the  Transfiguration. 
Besides  that,  Millennial  Dawn,  on  another  occa- 
sion, in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  reality  of  Moses  and 
Elijah  in  the  Transfiguration  (for  the  reader  will 
remember  that  Millennial  Dawn  has  Moses  in  his 
grave  and  Elijah  in  "oblivion"  till  the  resurrec- 
tion), tells  us  that  the  Transfiguration  was  not 
real ;  it  was  only  a  ' '  vision. "  So  if  the  ' '  kingdom 
of  God  came  with  power ' '  and  ' '  Christ  came  in  His 
kingdom"  in  the  Transfiguration,  it  was  not  real 
112 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


at  all — only  a  "vision!"  But  the  disciples  did 
not  understand  it  that  way,  and  so  they  kept  on 
asking  when  the  kingdom  should  come,  never  for 
once  dreaming  that  they  had  already  seen  it 

COME  IN  THE  TRANSFIGURATION  ! 

This  proposition  that  Christ  "came  in  His 
kingdom ' '  at  Pentecost  is  also  confirmed  by  another 
very  powerful  declaration  of  His  to  the  twelve 
disciples  when  He  sent  them  out  two  by  two  to 
visit  the  cities  of  Israel:  "But  when  they  persecute 
you  in  this  city,  flee  ye  into  another;  for  verily  I 
say  unto  you,  Ye  shall  not  have  gone  over  the 
cities  of  Israel  till  the  Son  of  man  be  come." 
(Matt.  10:23.)  They  could  visit  all  the  cities  of 
Israel  in  a  very  few  weeks,  but  He  would  "come" 
even  before  that  time  had  elapsed.  In  what  sense 
could  He  "come"  when  He  was  already  there  with 
them  f  There  is  only  one  simple,  direct,  and  honest 
answer  possible :  He  would  ' '  come  in  His  king- 
dom,"  as  He  did  at  Pentecost. 

5 — The  Kingdom  Was  Inaugurated  or  Set  Up 
at  Pentecost. 

"But  tarry  ye  in  Jerusalem  until  ye  be  endued 
with  power  from  on  high."    (Luke  24:49.) 

"But  ye  shall  receive  power,  after  that  the 
Holy  Ghost  is  come  upon  you ;  and  ye  shall  be  wit- 
nesses unto  Me  both  in  Jerusalem  and  in  all  Judea, 
and  in  Samaria,  and  unto  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth."    (Acts  1:8.) 

"And  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully 
come  they  were  all  with  one  accord  in  one  place. 

8  113 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


And  suddenly  there  came  from  heaven  a  sound  as 
of  a  rushing  mighty  wind,  and  it  filled  all  the  house 
where  they  were  sitting.  And  there  appeared  unto 
them  cloven  tongues  as  of  fire ;  and  it  sat  upon  each 
of  them.  And  they  were  all  filled  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  began  to  speak  with  other  tongues  as 
the  Spirit  gave  them  utterance."    (Acts  2:1-4.) 

This  was  the  baptism  of  power  and  the  Holy 
Ghost.  It  was  what  Jesus  had  promised  them.  It 
was  "the  kingdom  of  God  come  with  power."  It 
was  Christ  "coming  in  His  kingdom"  as  He  had 
promised  to  do  during  their  lifetime.  No  other 
event  but  Pentecost  in  the  world's  history  could 
possibly  satisfy  these  promises  which  led  up  to 
it.  Pentecost  abundantly  fulfills  every  item  prom- 
ised and  every  expectation  created. 

6 — After  Pentecost  Christians  Claimed  to  Be 
in  the  Kingdom. 

"Who  hath  delivered  us  from  the  power  of 
darkness  and  hath  translated  us  into  the  kingdom 
of  His  dear  Son;  in  whom  we  have  redemption  in 
His  blood,  even  the  forgiveness  of  sins."  (Col. 
1 : 12-14. )  Forgiveness  and  conversion  then  put 
one  into  the  kingdom  of  God! 

At  the  harvest,  which  is  the  end  of  the  world, 
Jesus  will  send  forth  His  angels  and  they  shall 
gather  out  of  His  kingdom  the  tares,  which  are 
the  children  of  the  wicked  one — notice:  it  is  not 
"gather  the  wheat  (the  'little  flock')  out  of  the 
world  for  His  kingdom;  but  gather  the  tares,  the 
children  of  the  wicked  one,  out  of  His  kingdom!" 
114 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


(Matt.  13:41.)  Then  the  kingdom  must  be  here 
in  this  world  before  the  harvest,  which  is  the  end 
of  the  world  or  age !  Will  Millennial  Dawn  please 
take  notice  of  this? 

7 —  After  Pentecost  the  Message  was  not — "The 
Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  at  Hand,"  but  the  Kingdom 
is  Now  Here! 

"But  when  they  believed  Philip  preaching  the 
things  concerning  the  kingdom  of  God,  and  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ,  they  were  baptized,  both 
men  and  women."    (Acts  8:12.) 

"And  Paul  went  into  the  synagogue  and  spake 
boldly  for  the  space  of  three  months,  disputing 
and  persuading  the  things  concerning  the  kingdom 
of  God."    (Acts  19:  8.) 

"And  now  behold,  I  know  that  ye  all  among 
whom  I  have  gone  preaching  the  kingdom  of  God 
shall  see  My  face  no  more."    (Acts  20:25.) 

"There  came  many  to  Him  into  His  lodging, 
to  whom  He  expounded  and  testified  the  kingdom 
of  God."    (Acts  28:23.) 

"And  from  the  days  of  John  the  Baptist  until 
now  the  kingdom  of  heaven  suffereth  violence,  and 
the  violent  take  it  by  force."  (Matt.  11:12.) 
This  is  Christ's  own  declaration  that  multitudes 
were  rushing  into  the  kingdom. 

8 —  Christ  is  Now  Reigning  in  His  Kingdom. 
"Therefore  being  by  the  right  hand  of  God 

exalted,  and  having  received  of  the  Father  the 
promise  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  He  hath  shed  forth 
this  which  ye  now  see  and  hear."    (Acts  2:33.) 
115 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


"The  Lord  said  unto  My  Lord,  Sit  thou  on  My 
right  hand  until  I  make  Thy  foes  Thy  footstool." 
(Acts  2:34.) 

"For  He  must  reign  until  He  hath  put  all 
enemies  under  His  feet."    (1  Cor.  15:25.) 

"But  this  man,  after  he  had  offered  one  sacri- 
fice for  sin  forever,  sat  down  on  the  right  hand 
of  God,  from  henceforth  expecting  till  His  enemies 
be  made  His  footstool. ' '    ( Heb.  10:13.) 

"Jesus  Christ,  whom  the  heavens  must  receive 
until  the  time  of  the  restitution  of  all  things  which 
God  hath  spoken  by  the  mouth  of  all  His  holy 
prophets  since  the  world  began."    (Acts  3:21.) 

These  five  texts  refer  to  and  describe  one  and 
the  same  event — Christ 's  present  reign  in  His  king- 
dom. He  is  sitting  upon  His  mediatorial  throne 
where  "He  ever  liveth  to  make  intercession  for 
us."  By  the  active  agency  of  the  Holy  Spirit  He 
is  striving  to  reconcile  men  to  God.  He  will  con- 
tinue in  this  work  till  the  last  enemy  has  been  put 
under  His  feet.  That  is  the  "restitution  of  all 
things"  which  Millennial  Dawn  has  so  much  to 
say  about. 

Paul  and  Peter  both  tell  us  that  we  must  inter- 
pret Scripture  by  the  "analogy  of  faith,"  as  we 
pointed  out  in  the  first  chapter  of  this  book.  That 
means  that  no  one  can  be  allowed  to  take  this  fifth 
text  out  of  its  natural  meaning,  and  out  of  its  har- 
monious relation  with  all  the  others  and  make  it 
mean  something  altogether  other  and  different 
from  the  rest ;  in  short,  to  put  it  into  utter  antag- 
116 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


onism  to  all  the  others,  as  Millennial  Dawn  always 
does  when  it  forever  insists  that  the  "restitution  of 
all  things ' '  can  only  take  place  in  the  Millennium ! 
By  doing  that  it  violates  hoth  common  sense  and 
a  divinely-inspired  canon  of  interpretation.  (Rom. 
12:6;  2  Pet.  1:20.)  Why  does  it  do  that?  Not 
hecause  any  honest  necessity  of  Scripture  inter- 
pretation requires  it,  but  to  make  business  for 
its  supposed  Millennium  ! 

9 — For  What  Purpose  is  the  Second  Coming? 

(1)  It  is  not  to  reign  in  a  kingdom.  Jesus  gave 
fifty  parables,  but  never  in  any  one  of  them  even 
remotely  taught  that  He  ever  intended  to  return 
to  this  earth  for  the  purpose  of  setting  up  and 
reigning  in  a  kingdom.  Neither  did  He  ever 
teach  that  in  any  other  form.  "When  that  very 
thing  was  pressed  upon  Him  by  His  disciples  and 
by  the  Jews  He  rejected  the  suggestion  almost  with 
indignation.  This  was  especially  the  case  imme- 
diately after  feeding  the  five  thousand. 

(2)  It  is  not  to  "set  up"  but  to  "deliver 
up"  a  kingdom. 

"For  as  in  Adam  all  die,  even  so  in  Christ 
shall  all  be  made  alive;  but  every  man  in  his  own 
order:  Christ  the  first  fruits,  afterward  they  that 
are  Christ's  at  His  coming;  then  cometh  the 
end,  when  He  shall  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God 
even  the  Father,  when  He  shall  have  put  down 
all  rule  and  all  authority  and  power;  for  He  must 
reign  till  He  hath  put  all  enemies  under  His  feet." 
(1  Cor.  15:22-26.) 

117 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


So  at  His  coming  He  will  not  set  up  a  king- 
dom, but  will  deliver  up  the  kingdom  to  God  the 
Father.  That  will  end  human  history  on  this 
planet,  and  there  will  be  no  Millennium  about  it. 

(3)  The  Purpose  of  the  Second  Coming  is  to 
Raise  the  Dead  and  to  Judge  the  World. 

"When  the  Son  of  man  shall  come  in  His  glory, 
and  all  the  holy  angels  with  Him,  then  shall  He  sit 
upon  the  throne  of  His  glory,  and  before  Him 
shall  be  gathered  all  nations,  and  He  shall  separate 
them  one  from  the  other  as  a  shepherd  divideth 
the  sheep  from  the  goats."     (Matt.  25-31-46.) 

"For  the  Son  of  man  shall  come  in  the  glory 
of  the  Father  with  His  angels,  and  then  shall  He 
reward  every  man  according  to  His  works." 
(Matt.  16:27.) 

"Behold,  the  Lord  cometh  with  ten  thousand 
of  His  saints  to  execute  judgment  upon  all." 
(Jude  14.) 

"And  the  day  of  vengeance  of  our  God!" 
(Is.  61:2.) 

"For  the  Lord  Himself  shall  descend  from 
heaven  with  a  shout,  with  the  voice  of  the  arch- 
angel and  with  the  trump  of  God ;  and  the  dead  in 
Christ  shall  rise  first;  then  we  which  are  alive 
and  remain  shall  be  caught  up  together  with  them 
in  the  clouds  to  meet  the  Lord  in  the  air;  and  so 
shall  we  ever  be  with  the  Lord."  (1  Thes.  4: 16- 
17.) 

"And  then  shall  appear  the  sign  of  the  Son  of 
man  in  heaven;  then  shall  all  the  tribes  of  the 
118 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


earth  mourn;  and  they  shall  see  the  Son  of  man 
coming  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  with  power  and 
great  glory.  And  He  shall  send  forth  His  angels 
with  a  great  sound  of  a  trumpet;  and  they  shall 
gather  together  His  elect  from  the  four  winds,  and 
from  one  end  of  the  heaven  to  the  other."  (Matt. 
24:30,  31.) 

"So  shall  it  be  at  the  end  of  the  world.  He 
shall  send  forth  His  angels  and  they  shall  gather 
out  of  His  kingdom  all  that  do  iniquity,"  etc. 
(Matt.  13:41.) 

10 — This  Gospel  Age  is  the  Last  Time — The 
Last  Days. 

"And  it  shall  come  to  pass  in  the  last  days, 
saith  God,  that  I  will  pour  out  My  Spirit,"  etc. 
(Acts  2:17.)  "When  Peter  said  this  in  his  great 
Pentecostal  sermon,  he  evidently  believed  that  he 
was  then  in  "the  last  days,"  though  he  was  at 
the  very  beginning  of  the  Christian  Era. 

"God,  who  at  sundry  times  and  in  divers  man- 
ners spake  in  time  past  to  the  fathers  by  the 
prophets,  hath  in  these  Last  Days  spoken  to  us  by 
His  Son,"  etc.    (Heb.  1:1.) 

It  will  not  be  necessary  to  quote  at  length  other 
Scriptures  to  show  that  the  sacred  writers  every- 
where and  always  speak  of  this  Gospel  Age  as  the 
Last  Time,  or  the  Last  Days.  In  proof  of  this  let 
any  one  examine  the  following  passages:  2  Tim. 
3 : 1 ;  1  Pet.  1 :  20 ;  2  Pet.  3 :  3 ;  1  Jn.  2 : 18  ;  Jude  18. 
The  necessary  implication  from  this  is  that  if  this 
Gospel  Age  is  the  "last,"  then  there  is  no  more 
119 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


to  follow  on  this  planet.  There  may  be  "ages  on 
ages"  to  come.  That  is  but  another  name  for 
eternity.  But  on  this  planet  human  history  will 
end  with  the  present  Age — the  Last  Time,  the  Last 
Days.  There  is  no  provision  in  any  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  for  Millennial  Dawn's  thousand  years 
of  Evangelization-probation  scheme!  If  it  ever 
takes  place  the  expenses  of  it  will  have  to  be  pro- 
vided for  out  of  the  funds  of  the  "Watch-Tower 
Publication  Society. 

A  Mathematical  Difficulty 

Millennial  Dawn  insists  that  all  the  people  who 
have  ever  lived  or  ever  will  live  on  this  planet 
will  be  resurrected  and  take  part  in  the  Millen- 
nium. Now,  no  one  can  tell  how  many  people  have 
already  lived  on  earth  since  Adam,  but  the  whole 
number  must  be  prodigious.  Millennial  Dawn 
tells  us  that  the  heathen  world,  not  counting 
deaths,  has  doubled  in  number  during  the  past 
fifty  years;  so  it  would  seem  safe  to  assume  that 
the  human  race  has  doubled  in  numbers,  counting 
the  living  and  the  dead,  each  century.  There  were 
sixteen  and  one-half  centuries  from  Adam  to  the 
Flood;  beginning  over  again  after  the  Flood  with 
eight  persons,  and  counting  forty-three  and  one- 
half  centuries  more,  the  entire  number  of  people 
who  have  ever  lived  on  this  planet  would  be  nearly 
two  hundred  and  fifty -two  trillion!  Give  them 
each  just  one  square  yard  on  which  to  live  and 
they  would  cover  over  the  fifty  million  square 
120 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


miles  of  land  on  this  planet  so  thickly  that  they 
could  not  all  sit  down  at  the  same  time !  This  is 
the  multitude  that  Millennial  Dawn  must  make 
provision  for.  Some  millions  of  years  hence  there 
will  probably  be  no  more  sea  than  there  is  now  on 
the  moon;  when  that  time  arrives  there  will  be 
three  times  as  much  room  for  them.  But  if  the 
business  is  to  begin  in  1914,  as  Millennial  Dawn  is 
announcing  with  such  persistent,  almost  clamorous 
urgency,  then  this  planet  will  not  "accommodate 
the  crowds  that  will  attend."  To  most  healthy 
minds  which  are  apt  to  look  at  things  as  they  are, 
this  Millennial  Dawn  performance  does  not  make  a 
very  serious  appeal.  And  if  it  were  not  for  the 
weak  who  might  be  harmed,  wre  might  let  it  pass 
in  silence. 

An  Astronomical  Protest 

Before  Copernicus  it  was  easy  for  people  to 
think  that  Christ  would  come  to  this  world  and 
set  up  a  throne  and  kingdom  upon  it  and  reign 
among  His  people.  Why  not?  This  was  believed 
to  be  the  only  world  in  the  universe.  All  the 
heavenly  bodies  revolved  around  it  every  day.  The 
Bible  said  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  were  made 
to  minister  to  it.  It  is  the  world  where  the  Son 
of  God  came  and  offered  His  life  a  sacrifice  to 
redeem  its  inhabitants.  He  had  promised  to  come 
again  shortly.  Why  should  He  not  desire  to  have 
His  throne  in  the  very  center  of  the  universe,  and 
upon  the  only  habitable  world  in  space?  The 
121 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


limited  astronomy  of  the  times  before  Copernicus 
lent  almost  unchallenged  support  to  that  program. 
So  when  the  early  Church  was  struggling  with 
Roman  heathenism,  suffering  persecution,  it  was 
easy  for  them  to  believe  that  Christ  would  come 
quickly,  destroy  His  enemies,  and  vindicate  His 
suffering  saints.  So  Dr.  Shedd  tells  us  in  his 
"History  of  Christian  Doctrines,"  that  the 
"blooming  age"  of  Millenarianism  was  during 
the  century  between  A.  D.  150  and  A.  D.  250. 
At  the  close  of  the  first  thousand  years  of  the 
Christian  Era  there  was  a  great  revival  of  this 
doctrine ;  and  so  will  there  be  again  probably  when 
the  Twenty-first  Century  dawns,  as  that  will  be 
believed  to  be  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  thou- 
sand years  since  Adam. 

But  since  Copernicus  all  this  is  changed.  "We 
are  in  another  Universe — a  Universe  so  vast  that 
light  which  travels  twelve  million  miles  a  minute 
will  go  around  the  world  seven  and  one-half  times 
in  a  second,  to  the  moon  in  a  second  and  a  quarter, 
to  the  sun  in  eight  minutes,  to  Neptune — our 
most  distant  planet — in  four  hours,  to  the  nearest 
star  in  four  years  and  four  months;  and,  accord- 
ing to  Professor  Simon  Newcomb,  it  will  require 
not  less  than  three  thousand  years  to  reach  the 
most  distant  star  in  space,  moving  all  the  time  at 
the  same  rate !  Here  then  is  a  universe  so  vast 
that  light  which  started  from  one  frontier  of  cre- 
ation on  the  day  that  God  created  Adam  will  not 
122 


THE  MILLENNIUM 


reach  the  opposite  frontier  of  the  universe  for  a 
century  yet  to  come ! 

Still  more.  By  means  of  stellar  photography 
we  believe  that  the  stars  must  be  numbered  by 
billions;  and  spectrum  analysis  proves  that  each 
and  every  star  is  a  sun  composed  of  practically 
the  same  material  or  chemical  elements  as  our  sun. 
In  case  of  a  few  that  are  nearest  to  us  the  great 
telescopes  reveal  their  secondaries  or  planets  re- 
volving around  these  central  suns.  And  more  are 
being  created  all  the  time.  Among  the  million  or 
more  of  nebulae — clouds  of  glowing  gas,  most  of 
them  tumultuous  and  chaotic,  "without  form  and 
void,"— Keeler  photographed  many  thousand 
which  show  forms,  indicating  ring,  spiral,  or  whirl- 
pool motion,  marking  stages  in  the  process  of 
world-building  that  is  constantly  going  on  before 
our  eyes.  These  are  new  solar  systems  that  are 
all  the  time  being  added  to  the  muster  roll  of  the 
galaxy.  Now,  to  a  healthy  mind,  it  is  simply 
unthinkable  that  Jesus  Christ,  the  Second  Person 
of  the  Trinity,  would  leave  the  Central  Throne  of 
a  universe  so  vast,  with  such  stupenduous  con- 
cerns upon  His  hands  and  heart,  and  come  down 
to  this  little  world — which  is  only  a  grain  of  sand 
in  a  universe  so  vast — and  set  up  a  throne  and 
reign  here  over  a  little  handful  of  His  saints  for 
a  thousand  years!  Belittle  Himself  to  the  level 
of  a  petty,  earthly  kaiser,  just  to  gratify  the  whims 
of  Millennial  Dawn !  The  Christ  we  worship  is  too 
123 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


glorious  in  person  and  too  majestic  in  moral  splen- 
dor to  engage  in  such  a  belittling  performance. 
He  can  not  reign  in  any  world  in  any  other  sense 
than  He  now  reigns  in  the  hearts  of  those  who 
love  Him.  He  came  to  this  planet  once  to  redeem 
it.  He  would  go  anywhere  to  save  a  world  and  at 
any  cost  or  sacrifice.  He  will  come  again  to  judge 
the  world;  but  our  moral  sense  revolts  at  the  sug- 
gestion that  we  must  reduce  Him  to  the  level  of 
the  manager  of  a  missionary  campaign,  when  He 
has  committed  that  glorious  work  to  His  Church; 
and  if  we  are  unable  or  unwilling  to  accept  the 
responsibility  He  will  call  others  who  will.  Every 
hour  that  Millennial  Dawn  keeps  on  with  its  silly 
' '  thousand  years  of  probation  and  evangelization, ' ' 
personally  conducted  by  Jesus  Christ,  it  simply 
degrades  and  belittles  the  Only-Begotten  Son  of 
God  whom  the  Christian  world  loves  to  exalt  and 
honor. 


124 


V 

PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


"Once  to  every  man  and  nation 

Comes  the  moment  to  decide, 
In  the  strife  of  Truth  with  Falsehood, 

For  the  good  or  evil  side; 
Some  great  truth — God's  new  Messiah — 

Offering  each  the  bloom  or  blight, 
Parts  the  goats  upon  the  left  hand, 

And  the  sheep  upon  the  right, 
And  the  choice  goes  by  forever 

'Twixt  that  darkness  and  that  light," 

— Lowell. 


CHAPTER  V 


Millennial  Dawn  is  the  Propagation  op  the 
Unscriptural  and  False  Doctrine  op  Pro- 
bation After  Death  for  all  Mankind 

This  life  is  probation.  Our  first  ancestors  were 
placed  upon  probation  immediately  after  their 
creation — Adam  even  before  the  creation  of  Eve. 
They  were  permitted  to  eat  of  the  fruit  of  all  trees 
save  one.  It  was  wholly  a  question  of  obedience. 
Attached  to  obedience  was  the  reward  of  life  and 
happiness;  to  disobedience,  the  penalty  of  death. 
The  awful  issues  of  their  moral  freedom  were  fully 
set  before  them.  By  obedience  they  could  rise  in 
the  favor  of  God  and  enjoy  His  fellowship  and 
that  of  spiritual  beings;  by  disobedience  they 
would  sink  into  sin,  depravity,  physical,  moral, 
and  spiritual  death. 

We  are  on  probation  exactly  as  they  were. 
Before  us  all  there  is  set  the  choice —  to  rise  and 
reign,  or  to  sink  and  die.  Obedience  to  God  and 
His  Holy  Law  mean  eternal  life;  diobedience  and 
sin  mean  eternal  death.  We  are  on  trial  to  decide 
whether  we  will  accept  the  offer  of  eternal  life, 
and,  by  obedience  to  God,  rise  from  a  state  of  sin 
and  moral  death  to  a  state  of  moral  and  spiritual 
life  and  glory;  or  whether  we  will  reject  the  offer 
127 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


of  life  and  salvation  in  Jesus  Christ  and  reap  the 
awful  retribution  of  sin  at  last. 

Millennial  Dawn  denies  that  all  people  are  on 
probation  during  this  present  life;  but  that  in  the 
Millennium  all  except  the  "little  flock"  will  have 
their  probation  and  their  chance  to  obtain  im- 
mortality. Those  who  remain  impenitent  and  in- 
corrigible will,  at  the  close  of  that  period,  pass 
into  annihilation. 

As  we  have  abundantly  shown  that  there  is  no 
Biblical  ground  for  this  Millennial  fiction,  so  now 
we  deny  that  there  is  any  Scriptural  basis  for  the 
assumption  that  any  of  the  race  of  Adam  are 
exempt  from  probation  in  this  life,  but  that  all 
who  have  arrived  at  the  years  of  moral  account- 
ability are  on  probation  for  their  moral  and  spir- 
itual character  and  eternal  destiny.  To  prove  this 
would  be  to  quote  the  entire  Bible.  There  is  not 
a  text  found  anywhere  against  this  proposition. 
The  whole  Bible  proceeds  upon  the  theory  that 
God  is  dealing  with  a  race  of  moral  beings  whose 
conduct,  character,  and  moral  choices  in  this  life 
determine  what  their  destiny  shall  be  hereafter. 
' '  I  call  heaven  and  earth  to  record  this  day  against 
you,  that  I  have  set  before  you  life  and  death, 
blessing  and  cursing;  therefore  choose  life,  that 
thou  and  thy  seed  may  live."  (Deut.  30:19.) 
This  doctrine  is  finely  set  forth  in  the  First  Psalm, 
which  traces  the  conduct,  character,  and  rewards 
of  the  righteous  and  the  wicked  in  sharp  contrast. 
It  is  also  the  doctrine  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
128 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


especially  that  of  the  Prodigal  Son,  the  Rich  Man 
and  Lazarus,  the  Ten  Virgins,  and  the  Wheat  and 
the  Tares.  To-day  God  is  saying  to  every  human 
being  as  His  prophet  said  to  Israel  at  Carmel: 
"How  long  halt  ye  between  two  opinions?  If  the 
Lord  be  God,  follow  Him ;  if  Baal,  then  follow 
him."  And  every  sane  man  knows  that  upon  his 
own  choice  hang  the  awful  issues  of  his  moral 
freedom.  This  probationary  principle  was  intro- 
duced at  the  very  threshold  of  man's  career  on 
this  planet:  "Of  every  tree  of  the  garden  thou 
mayest  freely  eat ;  but  of  the  tree  of  the  knowledge 
of  good  and  evil,  thou  shalt  not  eat  of  it,  for  in 
the  day  that  thou  eatest  thereof  thou  shalt  surely 
die."    (Gen.  2:17.) 

This  is  not  a  life  of  retribution.  God  does 
not  in  this  world  settle  with  us  for  our  sins.  There 
is  much  evil — physical,  mental,  moral — in  this 
world,  all  of  which  may  be  the  consequence  of 
sin,  but  it  is  not  sent  to  punish  sin.  It  is  result 
but  not  penalty.  It  may  vindicate  in  some  meas- 
ure, but  it  does  not  close  the  divine  administration. 
There  is  a  broad  difference  between  the  conse- 
quences of  sin  and  the  penalty  of  sin.  The  inno- 
cent are  constantly  suffering  the  results  of  sin, 
none  but  the  guilty  can  possibly  receive  punish- 
ment for  sin.  In  the  Ninth  Chapter  of  John  is 
the  story  of  a  blind  man  whom  Jesus  and  His 
disciples  saw,  the  sight  of  whom  instantly  drew 
from  the  disciples  this  question,  "Master,  who  did 
sin,  this  man  or  his  parents,  that  he  was  born 

9  129 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


blind?"  Jesus  answered,  "Neither,"  and  pro- 
ceeded to  show  them  that  the  man's  blindness  was 
not  sent  to  pnnish  anybody's  sin,  but  was  per- 
mitted to  "manifest"  the  works  of  God — to  fur- 
nish the  occasion  for  the  display  of  God's  mercy 
and  power.  Job's  friends  constantly  reiterated 
that  old  falsehood,  that  his  sufferings  were  sent 
to  punish  his  sins,  but  Job  steadily  denied  the 
implication.  He  was  right,  and  God  vindicated 
him.  The  presence  of  evil  in  this  world  can  be 
traced  to  no  other  cause  than  the  abuse  of  our 
moral  freedom.  And  it  is  permitted  to  remain 
chiefly  because  this  life  is  probation;  the  life  that 
is  to  come  is  retribution. 

What  God  intends  to  do  for  infants,  idiots, 
and  others  who  may  not  have  had  the  conditions 
of  a  fair  probation  in  this  life,  we  have  no  in- 
formation; and  the  theory  of  Millennial  Dawn, 
with  its  difficulties,  absurdities,  and  impossibilities, 
is  no  solution  of  the  problem.  If  God  has  not  seen 
fit  to  reveal  His  plan  for  them,  it  is  the  part  of 
modesty  as  well  as  of  piety  for  us  to  wait  until  it 
is  made  known.  It  is  quite  enough  for  us  that 
we  know  that  "now  is  the  acceptable  time;  that 
to-day  is  the  day  of  salvation."  If  there  is  any 
probation  for  any  one  beyond  this  life,  it  must  be 
in  sheol,  hades. 

The  Intermediate  State 

That  is  between  death  and  the  resurrection, 
and  was  quite  fully  considered  in  the  second  chap- 
130 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


ter  of  this  book.  No  one  who  accepts  the  Sacred 
Scriptures  as  his  guide  could  possibly  locate  pro- 
bation beyond  the  Resurrection  and  General  Judg- 
ment. If  anywhere  it  must  be  in  that  state  of 
existence  into  which  all  mankind  pass  at  death, 
and  in  which  they  will  remain  until  the  Judgment 
of  the  world — a  state  of  happiness,  of  spiritual 
life  and  enjoyment,  and  probably  of  growth  and 
advancement  for  all  those  who  are  saved  in  Jesus 
Christ;  a  state  of  conscious  helplessness  and  mis- 
ery for  all  who  have  rejected  God's  love  and 
mercy  in  this  life;  a  state  of  existence  which,  so 
far  as  the  human  race  is  concerned,  began  with 
the  death  of  Abel,  and  will  continue  till  the  day 
of  the  Resurrection ;  a  state  of  existence  which  has 
covered  more  than  five  thousand  years  of  history, 
and  will  reach  on  till  the  Judgment  throne  is  set 
— this  is  the  Intermediate  State,  and  if  probation 
extends  beyond  the  limits  of  this  life,  it  must  be 
sought  for  here.  With  the  torch  which  God  has 
graciously  given  us  in  His  revealed  Word,  let  us 
explore  this  region  and  seek  what  light  it  sheds 
upon  probation.  Once  in  the  Old  Testament  and 
once  in  the  New  are  we  permitted  to  gaze  beyond 
the  uplifted  curtain  into  that  world.  These  two 
scenes  are  in  the  Fourteenth  of  Isaiah  and  the 
Sixteenth  of  Luke.  The  first  represents  a  scene 
in  sheol: 

"Sheol  from  beneath  is  moved  for  thee  to  meet 
thee  at  thy  coming;  it  stirreth  up  the  dead  for 
thee,  even  all  the  chief  ones  of  the  earth;  it  hath 
131 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


raised  up  from  their  thrones  all  the  kings  of  the 
nations;  and  they  shall  speak  and  say  unto  thee, 
Art  thou  also  become  weak  as  we?  Art  thou  be- 
come like  unto  us?  Thy  pomp  is  brought  down 
to  sheol,  and  the  noise  of  thy  viols;  the  worm  is 
spread  under  thee,  and  worms  cover  thee.  .  .  . 
How  art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  0  Lucifer,  son 
of  the  morning!"    (Is.  14:9-15.) 

This  is  a  prophetic  account  of  the  reception 
which  the  King  of  Babylon — probably  Belshazzar 
— was  to  receive  in  Tartarus,  the  lower  sheol, 
when  his  kingdom  should  be  overthrown  and  him- 
self slain.  It  represents  a  state  of  consciousness, 
of  misery,  and  of  abject  helplessness.  The  wicked 
king  is  taunted  for  his  pride  and  crime  which  now 
come  to  him  with  torturing  remembrance.  It  is 
like  that  other  scene  where  Abraham  says  to  the 
Rich  Man  in  Hades,  "Son,  remember  that  thou  in 
thy  lifetime  had  the  good  things,"  etc.  So  im- 
perfectly was  the  doctrine  of  sheol  developed  in 
the  Hebrew  mind  that  we  do  not  wonder  that 
there  are  some  material  incongruities  about  it ;  but 
two  or  three  things  stand  out  large  and  clear:  It 
is  a  state  of  consciousness;  of  anguish  and  misery 
for  the  sinner;  and  it  is  not  a  state  of  Probation. 
We  have  a  right  to  expect  that  the  New  Testament 
account  of  the  same  state  will  be  more  fully  de- 
veloped.   So  we  turn  to  it: 

"There  was  a  certain  rich  man  which  was 
clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  faring  sumptu- 
ously every  day;  and  a  certain  beggar  named 
132 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


Lazarus  was  laid  at  his  gate,  full  of  sores,  and 
desiring  to  be  fed  with  crumbs  which  fell  from 
the  rich  man's  table;  yea,  even  the  dogs  came  and 
licked  his  sores.  And  it  came  to  pass  that  the 
beggar  died  and  that  he  was  carried  away  by  the 
angels  into  Abraham's  bosom;  and  the  rich  man 
also  died,  and  was  buried.  And  in  Hades  he  lifted 
up  his  eyes,  being  in  torments,  and  seeth  Abraham 
afar  off,  and  Lazarus  in  his  bosom.  And  he  cried 
and  said,  Father  Abraham,  have  mercy  on  me,  and 
send  Lazarus,  that  he  may  dip  the  tip  of  his  finger 
in  water,  and  cool  my  tongue ;  for  I  am  in  anguish 
in  this  flame.  But  Abraham  said,  Son,  remember 
that  thou  in  thy  lifetime  receivedst  thy  good 
things,  and  Lazarus  in  like  manner  evil  things; 
now  he  is  comforted  and  thou  art  in  anguish.  And 
besides  all  this,  between  us  and  you  there  is  a  great 
gulf  fixed,  that  they  which  would  pass  from  hence 
to  you  may  not  be  able,  and  that  none  may  cross 
over  from  thence  to  us.  And  he  said,  I  pray  thee 
therefore,  father,  that  thou  wouldst  send  him  to 
my  father's  house;  for  I  have  five  brethren;  that 
he  may  testify  unto  them,  lest  they  also  come  into 
this  place  of  torment.  But  Abraham  saith,  They 
have  Moses  and  the  prophets:  let  them  hear  them. 
And  he  said,  Nay,  father  Abraham;  but  if  one 
would  go  to  them  from  the  dead,  they  will  repent. 
And  he  said  unto  him,  If  they  hear  not  Moses  and 
the  prophets,  neither  will  they  be  persuaded,  if 
one  rise  from  the  dead."  (Luke  16:19-31;  Am. 
Rev.) 

133 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


This  is  perhaps  the  most  important  Scripture 
which  we  shall  consider  in  our  issue  with  Millen- 
nial Dawn.  The  author  of  that  system  of  error 
feels  keenly  how  damaging  this  story  is,  because 
it  teaches  three  truths,  all  of  which  are  fatal 
to  Millennial  Dawn.  These  truths  are:  The  Im- 
mortality of  the  Soul;  No  Soul-Sleeping  in  the 
Grave  nor  in  "Oblivion;"  and  No  Probation  After 
Death.  Establish  these  glorious  truths  and  Millen- 
nial Dawn  has  no  standing.  Therefore,  if  this 
great  story  which  Jesus  told  is  allowed  to  be  heard 
in  court  and  its  time  meaning  acknowledged,  it 
will  bury  Millennial  Dawn  in  "oblivion."  No 
wonder  that  its  author  moved  earth  and  heaven 
to  discredit  this  story,  or  so  to  interpret  it  as  to 
rob  it  of  its  natural  meaning.  Has  he  not  put  his 
stilted  interpretation  of  it  into  a  pamphlet  entitled, 
' '  The  Rich  Man  in  Hell ;  Lazarus  in  Abraham 's 
Bosom,"  and  has  he  not  issued  it  in  a  dozen  lan- 
guages and  distributed  it  in  front  of  every  church 
door,  and  put  it  under  every  door-mat  in  Chris- 
tendom? 

Of  all  the  fifty  stories  and  parables  in  the 
Gospels,  why  so  feverishly  anxious  about  this  one? 
Reason  enough.  If  this  story  is  true,  and  means 
what  it  says,  then  Millennial  Dawn  is  false!  Both 
can  not  be  true,  for  each  tells  a  different  story. 
It  is  as  if  Millennial  Dawn  were  on  trial  for 
murder,  and  is  now  moving  creation  to  impeach 
and  discredit  the  only  witness  on  earth  who  saw 
him  commit  the  crime.  No  wonder  that  Millennial 
134 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


Dawn  employs  all  its  ingenuity  and  all  its  great 
ability  for  sugar-coating  error  and  making  it  look 
plausible,  to  overthrow  the  testimony  of  the  story 
of  "The  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus." 

Two  More  Holes  than  Usual 

In  its  interpretation  of  this  great  story,  Millen- 
nial Dawn  finds  four  holes  to  crawl  out  of — two 
more  than  its  usual  number;  but  the  necessity  is 
unusual,  and  it  will  need  them  all,  and  then  some. 

First  Hole. — We  are  told  that  this  "parable" 
has  always  been  misunderstood,  but  will  now  be 
made  plain.  In  past  ages  it  has  been  employed 
by  the  Church  to  teach  that  all  sinners  and  non- 
Christian  people  will  be  tormented  in  hell  forever. 
Now,  since  we — Millennial  Dawn — have  shown 
that  eternal  punishment  is  not  true,  it  follows  that 
this  "parable"  does  not  mean  what  it  says.  Its 
meaning  must  be  sought  elsewhere.  This  is  sub- 
stantially the  first  thing  brought  forward  to 
weaken  the  testimony  of  this  great  story.  And  to 
it  we  reply: 

Millennial  Dawn  is  exactly  as  much  to  blame 
for  the  cruel  teaching  of  eternal  torment  by  the 
Church  in  past  ages  as  any  man  now  living.  It 
seems  to  think  that  it  is  the  only  cult  in  all  the 
world  that  is  not  now  preaching  eternal  torment 
for  all  unsaved  people.  Practically  all  of  the  mate- 
rialistic cruelty  has  disappeared  from  the  teachings 
of  Protestant  pulpits,  and  preaching  the  love  of 
God  has  taken  its  place,  and  all  this  years  before 
135 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


the  Watch  Tower  Publications  began  to  illuminate 
the  world.  In  this  matter  Millennial  Dawn  grossly 
misrepresents  both  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the 
modern  evangelical  message.  There  is  probably 
not  a  Protestant  pulpit  in  the  world  that  repre- 
sents "the  Father  taking  a  fiendish  delight  in 
creating  millions  of  humanity  with  the  foreknowl- 
edge of  a  precarious  existence  in  the  present  life 
of  a  few  years  and  their  eternal  torture."  One 
who  misunderstands  and  misrepresents  modern 
Christendom  as  badly  as  that  we  suspect  is  ill  fitted 
to  represent  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  to  lost  men. 

But  all  this  senseless  chatter  about  "eternal 
torture"  misses  the  mark  a  million  miles;  and  it 
is  injected  here  to  divert  attention  from  the  real 
meaning  of  the  story — which  is  not  punishment, 
but  Probation  !  The  central  aim  of  the  story  is 
to  show  what  chance,  if  any,  a  bad  man  has  in  the 
life  to  come.  Ten  times  as  much  stress  is  laid 
upon  that  point  as  is  laid  upon  the  rewards  which 
a  good  man  shall  have.  The  first  scene  of  the 
story  is  laid  in  this  world;  the  second  is  laid  in 
Hades,  that  intermediate  world  between  death  and 
the  Resurrection.  And  what  we  supremely  want 
to  know  is  whether  there  is  any  probation  for  un- 
saved men  in  that  state.  That  is  precisely  what 
Jesus  told  the  story  for — to  put  forever  at  rest 
that  question.  That  feature  of  the  story  we  shall 
discuss  presently. 

Second  Hole. — Millennial  Dawn  calls  this  a 
"parable"  and  then  tells  us  that  "in  a  parable 
136 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


the  thing  said  is  never  the  thing  meant!"  In 
other  words,  This  is  a  parable  and  does  not  mean 
what  it  says,  but  what  Millennial  Dawn  says. 

Our  emphatic  answer  is,  that  this  is  not  a  para- 
ble, but  a  story,  the  statement  of  an  historical  fact. 
It  was  told  by  Jesus  Himself,  and  means  exactly 
what  it  says.  It  is  never  called  a  parable  by  our 
Lord,  nor  by  any  other  sacred  writer  or  speaker. 
That  it  is  a  true  fragment  of  history  is  made 
certain  by  our  Lord  giving  the  names  of  two  of 
the  three  persons  mentioned  in  it,  as  well  as  plain 
and  literal  facts  connected  with  their  lives  here 
and  of  their  condition  hereafter.  "We  might  as 
well  call  everything  that  Jesus  said  parables  as 
to  call  this  one.  It  is  not  fiction  but  fact,  and  its 
mighty  moral  and  spiritual  import  is  plain,  literal, 
and  unmistakable.  That  is  exactly  what  makes  it 
a  great  story,  and  what  enables  its  testimony  to 
crush  Millennial  Dawn's  hope  of  Soul  Sleeping  in 
"oblivion"  and  of  Probation  after  Death,  and 
many  other  silly  inventions  of  men.  But,  suppose 
it  is  a  parable,  that  does  not  shift  its  meaning 
one  hair's  breadth,  nor  give  Millennial  -Dawn  li- 
cense to  torture  it  into  the  strained  and  meaning- 
less fiction  to  which  it  has  resorted  in  order  to 
destroy  the  meaning  of  the  story. 

Third  Hole. — Millennial  Dawn  attacks  the  lit- 
eralness  of  the  story.  It  tells  us  humorously  how 
impossible  it  would  be  for  Abraham  to  hold  Laza- 
rus in  his  bosom,  much  less  the  multitudes,  etc. 
Here  again  it  purposely  misses  the  true  meaning, 
137 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


tries  to  deflect  attention  from  the  simple  natural- 
ness of  the  account,  and  from  the  nerve  and  central 
idea  of  the  story.  Now,  as  a  matter  of  Biblical 
truth,  Abraham's  bosom  is  not  a  figure  at  all,  but 
a  literal  name  for  the  home  of  the  saved  in  sheol. 
It  is  the  Paradise  of  the  New  Testament — the 
place  where  Jesus  went  from  the  cross  bearing 
with  Him  the  soul  of  the  penitent  thief.  Among 
the  Jews  "it  was  quite  usual  to  describe  a  just 
person  as  being  with  Abraham,  or  lying  upon 
Abraham's  bosom."  (McClintock  and  Strong's 
Cyclopedia. ) 

Then  again,  Millennial  Dawn  declares  that  it 
must  be  figurative,  else  our  Lord  would  teach  that 
the  Rich  Man  was  damned  because  he  was  rich, 
and  Lazarus  was  blessed  because  he  was  poor, 
which  amounts  to  saying  that  "wealth  makes  sin- 
ners and  poverty  makes  saints."  But  Millennial 
Dawn  can  not  destroy  the  direct  and  awful  im- 
port of  this  story  by  arguments  as  superficial  as 
that.  One  does  not  have  to  know  his  Bible  very 
well  to  find  out  that  it  was  not  his  wealth  that 
our  Lord  condemned  in  Dives,  but  the  use  he  made 
of  it.  God's  Word  tells  us  of  the  pardon  of 
thieves,  adulterers,  and  murderers;  but  few  if  any 
of  those  who  once  set  their  hearts  on  riches. 
There  is  little  hope  for  any  man  who  dethrones 
God  and  worships  gold  either  in  tins  world  or 
the  next.  Our  Lord  makes  it  plain  in  the  story 
that  this  Rich  Man  was  proud,  selfish,  and  covet- 
ous, never  ministering  to  the  sick  man  who  starved 
138 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


to  death  at  his  gate.  He  was  less  humane  than 
the  dogs  which  licked  the  sick  man's  sores.  Yet 
Millennial  Dawn  has  never  been  able  to  see  any 
reason  why  this  rich  bog  should  be  sent  to  a  place 
of  retribution!  It  was  his  pride,  selfishness,  and 
greed  that  put  him  into  the  class  upon  wbich  God's 
curses  rest.  We  respectfully  invite  Millennial 
Dawn's  attention  to  several  other  members  of  the 
same  class;  Achan  (Josh.  7:20,  21);  Gehazi  (2 
Kings  5:  20-27)  j  Ahab  and  Jezebel  (1  Kings  21)  ; 
The  Rich  Fool  (Luke  12:18-20);  Rich  Young 
Ruler  (Luke  18:18-24);  Judas  (Matt.  26:15); 
Ananias  (Acts  5:5)  ;  Sapphira  (Acts  5:10)  ;  and 
Simon  Magus  (Acts  8: 17-20).  We  have  not  very 
much  admiration  for  a  man's  spiritual  insight  who 
can  not  see  that  the  Rich  Man  of  the  story  belongs 
in  this  class.  Such  a  man  has  little  light  to  shed 
upon  the  path  of  benighted  men.  We  do  not 
wonder  that  he  should  clamor  for  the  greater 
effulgence  of  the  Millennium ! 

Fourth  Hole. — This  is  Millennial  Dawn's  bril- 
liant attempt  to  interpret  the  story,  and  it  charac- 
terizes its  own  remarkable  performance  by  these 
words,  "Greatly  misunderstood  parable  made 
plain. "  (!)  Now  watch  and  see  how  plain  he 
makes  it.  So  he  proceeds  and  makes  "the  thing 
meant"  to  be  anything  under  heaven  but  "the 
thing  said."  A  man  in  wildest  delirium  could  not 
have  gotten  them  any  wider  apart.  Lazarus,  poor, 
sick,  starving,  dying,  stands  for  the  heathen  world, 
which  at  that  moment  was  the  great,  strong,  all- 
139 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


conquering,  world-ruling  Roman  Empire.  One 
does  not  need  two  eyes  to  see  what  a  perfect  fit 
that  is !  Wonder  we  had  not  thought  of  it  before. 
The  Rich  Man,  great,  opulent,  strong,  means  the 
poor,  weak,  dejected,  and  despised  Jews.  The  won- 
der grows  that  it  should  have  escaped  us  so  long. 
It  is  so  appropriate  and  obvious  when  one  really 
sees  it.  But  wait:  The  beggar,  the  great  and 
mighty  Roman  Empire  and  all  the  rest  of  the 
heathen  world,  died,  and  was  carried  by  the  angels 
into  Abraham's  bosom — how  easy  and  simple  and 
nice  of  the  angels.  Wasn't  much  room  for  Laza- 
rus before,  but  Abraham's  bosom  is  big  enough 
now.  The  Rich  Man,  that  is  the  Jews,  died  and 
was  buried  in  Hades,  the  grave,  "oblivion."  That 
means  that  the  Jews  "took  sick"  at  the  Crucifixion 
and  were  thirty-six  years  in  dying.  Even  then 
they  did  not  die.  It  was  only  the  "Nation"  that 
died,  not  the  individuals.  The  "Nation"  has  been 
in  torment  ever  since !  How  easy  it  all  seems  when 
once  you  know ! 

Just  put  Millennial  Dawn's  interpretation  into 
it  and  see  how  natural  and  probable  it  comes  out : 
"There  was  a  certain  Jewish  Nation  which  was 
clothed  in  purple  and  fine  linen  and  fared  sump- 
tuously every  day ;  and  there  was  a  certain  Gentile 
Nation  named  Lazarus,  which  was  laid  at  the  gate 
of  the  Jewish  Nation,  full  of  sores.  Moreover, 
the  dogs,  that  means  'the  heathen  dogs,'  our 
Lord  thus  used  an  aphorism  of  that  time  and 
country  under  which  the  Jews  spoke  of  all  Gentiles 
140 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


as  'heathen  dogs.'  "  (Did  He  not  use  a  similar 
aphorism  when  He  spoke  of  Abraham's  bosom?) 
The  dogs,  the  Gentiles,  came  and  licked  the  sores 
of  the  Gentile  Nation.  And  it  came  to  pass  that 
the  Gentile  Nation  died,  and  was  carried  by  the 
angels  into  Abraham's  bosom  (exactly  the  place 
that  all  Gentile  Nations  are  looking  for)  !  The 
Jewish  Nation  also  died  and  was  buried  in  Hades, 
the  grave;  and  in  "oblivion"  "it  lifted  up  its  eyes, 
being  in  torments!"  That  is  quite  enough  to  ex- 
pose the  folly  and  insincerity  of  such  a  manufac- 
tured interpretation.  It  was  resorted  to  by  Mil- 
lennial Dawn  only  to  save  its  life,  and  not  because 
any  principle  of  fair  interpretation  or  any  neces- 
sity of  exegesis  required  it. 

"We  have  carefully  read  this  strange  interpre- 
tation of  the  great  story  of  our  Lord,  thinking  that 
there  must  be  some  great  moral  or  spiritual  truth 
hidden  in  the  story  in  order  to  justify  such  a 
strained  and  irrational  exposition,  some  sun-burst 
of  glory  that  had  hitherto  escaped  ordinary  Bible 
students,  something  left  for  a  mighty  thinker  to 
rescue  from  "oblivion"  and  bring  forth  for  the 
enlightenment  of  mankind.  But  what  have  we? 
Nothing!  Suppose  Millennial  Dawn's  extrava- 
gant interpretation  is  true,  what  contribution  does 
it  make  to  our  knowledge  of  truth  ?  Nothing  !  It 
leaves  us  worse  in  the  fog  than  when  we  began. 

To  one  who  has  entered  into  the  purpose  and 
spirit  of  Luke's  Gospel  this  Millennial  Dawn  in- 
terpretation of  the  great  story  of  our  Lord  is  noth- 
141 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 

ing  short  of  amazing.  When  we  fully  understand 
that  Luke's  Gospel  is  a  masterpiece  of  character 
study,  that  every  story,  parable,  person,  and  inci- 
dent is  conceived  and  told  from  that  standpoint 
alone,  that  it  is  all  intended  to  lead  up  to  the  great 
character — the  climactic  man,  Jesus  the  Son  of  man 
— then  any  ethnic,  institutional  or  ecclesiastical, 
meaning  becomes  incongruous  and  silly.  Luke 
wrote  the  Book  of  Acts.  Here,  in  the  organization 
of  the  Primitive  Church,  was  an  opportunity,  one 
might  almost  think  a  necessity,  to  go  into  details 
about  the  institution.  But  what  have  we  ?  Almost 
nothing  in  that  line.  Persons,  doctrines,  charac- 
ters, abound  and  fill  the  pages  to  the  very  close. 
Now,  for  one  to  come  along  and  tell  us  that  this 
great  story  which  our  Lord  told,  and  which  was 
foreign  to  Matthew's  Gospel,  which  deals  chiefly 
with  nations  and  kingdoms,  but  so  far  entered  into 
the  plan  and  purpose  of  Luke 's  Gospel  that  he  gave 
it  a  central  place — for  one  to  tell  us  that  the  Rich 
Man  means  the  Jews  and  that  Lazarus  means  the 
Gentiles,  is  little  short  of  disgusting.  This  would 
be  robbing  the  great  story  of  its  deep  moral  mean- 
ing just  to  advance  the  fortunes  of  a  hobby-rider. 

Probation  or  Retribution — Which? 

If  probation  extends  beyond  the  limits  of  this 
life  it  must  manifest  itself  by  some  token  in  Hades, 
for  no  Biblical  scholar  would  ever  think  of  placing 
it  beyond  the  General  Judgment,  or  of  carrying 
the  torch  of  hope  to  any  lost  soul  beyond  the  Res- 
142 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


urrection.  If  it  is  anywhere  it  is  in  the  Inter- 
mediate State.  That  this  scene  does  not  represent 
a  state  of  probation,  but  rather  one  of  retribution 
— a  state  where  character  seems  crystallized  and 
destiny  forever  established — appears  certain  from 
the  following  pregnant  facts  which  the  story  ex- 
hibits : 

1.  Between  the  two  compartments  of  Hades — 
the  home  of  the  saved  and  of  the  lost — is  fixed  a 
"Great  Gulf"  which  can  not  be  crossed  from  either 
side.  This  may  be  a  moral  gulf;  but  whatever  it 
is  it  points  unmistakably  to  the  fixity  and  change- 
lessness  of  character  in  that  world.  Character 
fixed  and  destiny  closed  do  not  constitute  elements 
of  a  probationary  state.    That  is  passed. 

2.  Prayer  is  no  longer  availing  in  the  home 
of  the  lost  soul.  Two  earnest  requests  were  made 
by  this  Rich  Man,  one  of  them  the  smallest  favor 
that  could  possibly  be  asked  in  any  world — for 
one  drop  of  water !  And  the  other,  the  most  plaus- 
ible prayer  that  could  be  offered  in  any  world — ■ 
that  Lazarus  might  be  permitted  to  go  down  to 
earth  and  warn  his  five  brethren,  "lest  they  also 
come  to  this  place  of  torment!"  Both  of  these 
prayers  were  denied  him.  Does  a  world  where 
prayer  can  not  be  answered  represent  a  state  of 
moral  probation?  On  eartii  sinners  often  brace 
up  each  other's  courage  by  saying,  if  they  are  all 
sent  to  perdition  together,  "Misery  likes  com- 
pany!" But  from  this  scene  it  would  seem  that 
when  a  human  soul  stands  stark  before  the  awful 

143 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


realities  of  eternity  and  under  the  terrible  hand 
of  God's  righteous  retribution,  it  does  not  want 
any  company.  Where  prayer  ends  probation  also 
ends,  and  retribution  begins. 

3.  Though  the  Rich  Man  was  suffering  griev- 
ous "anguish"  (Am.  Rev.),  and  seemed  to  believe 
that  he  was  still  where  prayer  could  be  heard,  yet 
this  lost  soul  did  not  pray  for  himself  nor  ask 
for  mercy  or  pardon.  He  wanted  his  brothers  to 
repent,  not  for  the  sake  of  Christ,  nor  for  the  glory 
of  God,  but  simply  to  escape  what  he  was  suffering. 
He  wanted  them  to  escape,  but  was  unwilling 
himself  to  repent.  No  moral  change  comes  to  his 
rebellious  heart. 

4.  Instead  of  repenting  or  showing  any  sor- 
row for  sin,  or  exhibiting  any  desire  to  change 
either  his  conduct  or  his  character,  he  was  still  re- 
bellious; and  when  informed  that  his  brethren  on 
earth  had  Moses  and  the  prophets,  which  if  they 
would  hear,  they  would  be  saved,  this  old  rebel  in 
Tartarus  says,  "Nay,  father  Abraham,  but  if  one 
went  unto  them  from  the  dead  they  will  repent." 
His  soul  was  still  stubborn,  rebellious,  and  Satanic. 
Like  all  other  incorrigible  sinners,  he  still  insisted 
that  his  way  was  better  than  God's  way.  That  at- 
titude is  the  very  nerve  of  sin. 

5.  This  story  also  teaches  that  while  all  means 
of  salvation  are  unavailing  in  Hades,  on  earth 
they  are  abundant  and  adequate.  We  have  Moses 
and  the  prophets;  we  have  Christ  the  Savior,  and 
the  Holy  Spirit  the  Comforter;  we  have,  in  com- 

144 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


mon  with  all  human  beings,  "the  Light  that  light- 
eneth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world;" — 
means  which  God  has  freely  furnished  us,  and 
which  are  adequate  for  the  salvation  of  every  man 
and  woman  who  will  obey  them.  If  we  neglect  or 
refuse  them,  we  forfeit  our  right  to  ask  or  to  ex- 
pect another  chance  in  the  life  to  come.  This 
man  had  clearly  despised  God's  provisions  of 
mercy  in  this  world,  had  rejected  1 '  Moses  and  the 
prophets"  as  he  did  when  in  the  place  of  "an- 
guish," and  had  therefore  wasted  his  only  oppor- 
tunity, as  millions  are  doing.  God  simply  treated 
him  as  one  who  by  such  a  course  had  forfeited 
his  right  to  ask  for  another  chance. 

6.  This  story  teaches  finally,  that  no  other 
means,  no  other  "work,  nor  device,  nor  knowledge, 
nor  wisdom, ' '  beyond  what  the  divine  love  has  pro- 
vided for  the  salvation  of  lost  men  here  and  now, 
can  be  offered  them  in  the  life  to  come.  Almost  in 
despair  the  Divine  Father  says,  "What  more  can 
I  do  for  My  vineyard  that  I  have  not  already 
done?"  "If  they  hear  not  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
neither  will  they  be  persuaded  though  one  rose 
from  the  dead." 

If  there  is  any  probation  provided  for  lost  men 
beyond  this  life  we  would  expect  to  find  some  token 
of  it  in  this  remarkable  story — one  that  gives  us 
the  completest  exposition  of  the  Intermediate  State 
to  be  found  anywhere  in  the  Bible.  If  we  fail  to 
find  probation  here,  we  shall  look  in  vain  for  it 
anywhere  else.   A  world  where  prayer  can  not  be 

10  145 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


answered — where  character  can  not  change — 
where  repentance  never  enters  the  soul — where 
all  salvation-means  are  withdrawn  and  denied — 
where  the  only  experience  is  fruitless  "anguish" 
— where  guilt  produces  no  contrition,  and  memory 
only  remorse — is  not  a  world  of  probation.  It  is 
a  lost  world.  It  is  a  world  of  retribution,  where 
"Alas,  the  fruit  of  our  forbidden  tree  begins  to 
fall!" 

This  is  our  explanation  of  our  Lord's  great 
story  of  "The  Rich  Man  and  Lazarus;" — a  story 
whose  moral  implications  are  so  clear,  the  meaning 
of  whose  dramatic  incidents  are  so  obvious,  that 
to  smother  them  as  Millennial  Dawn  attempts  to 
do,  with  a  bungling,  far-fetched,  and  labored  na- 
tional meaning,  is  simply  to  offend  the  moral  judg- 
ment of  mankind.  This  story  is  one  of  the  most 
far-resounding  moral  notes  ever  sounded  in  this 
world. 

Additional  Texts  Examined 

Phil.  2:10,  11;  "Wherefore  God  hath  highly 
exalted  him  and  given  him  a  name  that  is  above 
every  name,  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every  knee 
should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven  and  things  on 
earth,  and  things  under  the  earth;  and  that  every 
tongue  should  confess  that  Jesus  Christ  is  Lord, 
to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father."  A  part  of  this 
is  a  quotation  from  Isaiah  45 : 23,  "I  have  sworn 
by  myself,  the  word  has  gone  out  of  my  mouth  in 
righteousness,  and  shall  not  return,  That  unto 
146 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


Me  every  knee  shall  bow,  every  tongue  shall 
swear."  It  seems  clear  that  Paul  quoted  this  pas- 
sage, not  to  prove  that  all  men  should  be  saved, 
but  to  show  that  at  the  exaltation  of  our  Lord, 
every  being  in  heaven,  in  earth,  and  in  hell 
should  be  compelled  to  acknowledge  the  exalted 
Name  and  Authority  of  Jesus  Christ.  That  seems 
exactly  what  Paul  intended  to  say.  On  another 
occasion  Paul  quoted  the  same  passage — Rom.  14: 
11 — not  to  prove  that  all  men  should  be  saved, 
but  to  show  that  all  men  should  be  judged:  "For 
we  shall  all  stand  before  the  judgment  seat  of 
Christ ;  for  it  is  written,  As  I  live,  saith  the  Lord, 
every  knee  shall  bow  to  Me,  and  every  tongue 
shall  confess  to  God.  So  then  every  one  of  us  shall 
give  account  of  himself  to  God." 

Some  have  based  their  hope  of  a  probation 
after  death  or  of  a  final  restoration  of  all  men 
upon  these  and  similar  texts:  "It  is  not  the  will 
of  your  Father  that  one  of  these  little  ones  should 
perish."  (Matt.  18:11.)  God  "who  will  have 
all  men  to  be  saved,  and  to  come  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  truth."  (1  Tim.  2:4.)  These  and  similar 
texts  do  not  express  God's  will  in  the  sense  of 
purpose,  but  in  the  sense  of  desire.  The  Greek 
word  relied  on  in  both  instances  is  the  one  which 
Jesus  used  when  weeping  over  sinners  whom  He 
woidd  but  could  not  save:  "0  Jerusalem,  Jerusa- 
lem, thou  that  killest  the  prophets  and  stonest  them 
that  are  sent  unto  thee!  How  often  'would'  I 
have  gathered  thy  children  together  even  as  a  hen 
147 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


gathers  her  chickens  under  her  wings.  But  ye 
would  not!  Behold,  your  house  is  left  unto  you 
desolate ! ' ' 

That  mysterious  boundary  that  runs  between 
probation  and  retribution  is  often  reached  and 
crossed  in  this  life.  In  relation  to  a  thousand 
things  probation  ends  and  retribution  begins  even 
here.  Persistent  violation  of  the  laws  of  health 
lead  irresistibly  on  to  disease  and  death.  It  seems 
quite  certain  therefore  that  many  people  reach  and 
cross  the  line  that  fixes  their  eternal  destiny  while 
yet  treading  the  pathway  of  this  life.  If  you  see 
a  man  confirmed  in  habits  of  indolence  and  dis- 
honesty, you  know  that  his  financial  proba- 
tion has  closed.  If  you  find  one  confirmed  in 
habits  of  unbelief — mind  sealed,  conviction  settled, 
investigation  closed,  and  his  whole  nature  in  a 
state  of  moral  collapse — you  feel  certain  that  the 
probation  of  faith  is  closed  for  him.  If  you  meet 
one  whose  character  is  degraded  into  incorrigible 
habits  of  sin,  and  who  bitterly  scorns  all  further 
offers  of  mercy,  you  can  not  well  resist  the  feeling 
that  his  candidacy  for  heaven  and  eternal  life  is 
ended.  No  Judgment  throne  will  ever  reverse  the 
decision  which  such  a  man  deliberately  passes  upon 
himself. 

"There  is  a  line  by  us  unseen, 
That  crosses  every  path — 
The  hidden  boundary  between 
God's  patience  and  His  wrath. 
148 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


"There  is  a  time,  we  know  not  when, 
A  point,  we  know  not  where, 
That  marks  the  destiny  of  men, 
For  glory  or  despair." 

A  Probationless  Millennium 

It  seems  to  us  that  Millennial  Dawn's  concep- 
tion of  probation  is  fundamentally  wrong.  Its 
Millennium  is  one  without  any  of  the  elements  of 
probation.  Probation  means  moral  choice,  not  for 
traditional  reasons,  nor  because  the  crowd  is  going 
that  way.  Politicians  create  excitement  and  fury 
to  keep  men  from  thinking  and  vote  them  in 
crowds.  The  awful  issues  of  eternity  can  not  be 
settled  in  that  way.  Probation  means  choice  of 
right  because  right  is  right  and  God  is  God.  It 
means  persistent  pursuance  of  the  right  through 
the  fiery  ordeal  of  opposition  and  moral  resistance. 
It  means  development  of  character.  It  means 
moral  and  spiritual  gymnastics.  To  crowd  the 
entire  human  race  together  in  a  vast  plain  or  pa- 
vilion, bind  Satan  a  thousand  years,  withdraw 
every  evil  suggestion  and  every  tempting  influence, 
bring  to  bear  the  moral  influence  of  the  entire 
community,  silence  the  howling  winds  of  winter, 
and  fan  the  brow  with  the  balmy  breezes  of  per- 
petual summer,  make  life  for  a  thousand  years  one 
long-drawn-out  campaign  of  evangelism,  and  call 
that  a  real  probation  for  one's  eternal  character 
and  destiny  is  about  like  the  farce  of  attempting  to 
raise  oak  trees  in  a  hot-house!  In  the  helps  and 
149 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 


hindrances  of  this  present  life  God  has  furnished 
the  necessary  conditions  of  a  fair  probation.  Mil- 
lennial Dawn,  wiser  than  God,  invents  a  Millennial 
probation  where  all  this  is  reversed.  Its  hopes  for 
successful  issues  in  that  campaign  are  based  upon 
the  ground  that  it  has  everything  exactly  different 
from  that  which  God's  wisdom  ordained  for  this 
life.  Our  feeling  is  that  this  manufactured  thing 
called  a  probation  is  not  that  at  all,  but  just  a 
gigantic  Sunday  school  picnic. 

The  personal  presence  of  Christ  conducting 
such  a  campaign  would  embarrass  freedom  of  ac- 
tion, stultify  motives,  and  rob  the  whole  perform- 
ance of  the  intrinsic  elements  of  a  real  probation. 
Jesus  Himself  said,  "It  is  better  for  you  that  I 
go  away."  The  presence  of  all  the  holy  men  and 
women,  prophets,  apostles,  martyrs,  and  eminent 
saints  of  all  ages  would  take  from  such  a  move- 
ment the  nerve  of  moral  choice  and  the  very  fiber 
of  self-denying  consecration.  What  would  it  mean 
to  say  to  your  neighbor,  "Deny  thyself,  take  up 
thy  cross  and  follow  Jesus?" 

Such  a  campaign  would  result,  we  may  sup- 
pose, in  the  turning  to  God  of  vast  multitudes  with 
flabby  muscles,  cotton  sinews,  anemic  blood,  and 
mushy  souls.  It  is  a  conception  utterly  at  va- 
riance with  the  Word  of  God,  antagonistic  to  that 
Word,  and  distasteful  to  the  thought  of  sturdy 
and  sincere  men.  The  New  Testament  abounds 
in  ideas  of  the  heroic  in  God's  service,  but  it  has 
150 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 


not  one  word  of  sympathy  for  this  school  of  molly- 
coddles. 

Boom  for  Worldlings  and  Sinners 

It  would  be  impossible  for  one  to  contrive  a 
more  welcome  scheme  for  worldlings  and  sinners 
than  this  of  Millennial  Dawn.  The  supreme  sin 
of  every  age  is  worldliness — love  for  things  secular, 
distaste  for  things  sacred.  And  this  unscriptural 
scheme  just  meets  a  "long-felt  want."  Every 
motive  for  virtue,  holiness,  consecration  is  robbed 
of  its  power,  its  voice  silenced,  and  its  effectiveness 
reduced  to  zero.  Every  passion  for  the  world  and 
for  a  life  of  self-indulgence  is  inflamed.  Every 
desire  for  worldly  pleasure  is  gratified.  Every 
hope  for  another  chance  in  some  future  and  far- 
off  life  where  the  influences  will  be  more  auspi- 
cious and  the  moral  resistance  weakened  is  im- 
mensely enhanced. 

"Who  then  having  ears  will  take  pains  to  hear? 
Who,  loving  the  world,  will  have  any  motive  for 
giving  it  up?  Who  that  hates  cross-bearing  will 
hasten  to  engage  in  it?  Who  that  hates  God  and 
loves  sin  will  be  likely  to  repent  or  reform  ?  Post- 
pone the  crisis  for  a  thousand  years,  give  loose  rein 
to  passion  and  universal  license  to  sin,  and  how 
quickly  humanity  will  sink  into  the  lowest  degra- 
dation of  heathenism.  That  is  the  legitimate  fruit 
of  this  ungodly  scheme. 

The  vice  of  procrastination  is  well-nigh  uni- 
151 


THE  MILLENNIAL  DAWN  HERESY 

versal.  This  wild  scheme  robs  it  of  its  moral  dan- 
ger. Tell  worldlings  and  sinners  that  they  have 
no  need  of  anxiety  about  their  souls ;  that  they  will 
have  a  thousand  years  in  which  to  get  ready  for 
heaven,  and  there  is  not  one  in  a  million  but  will 
hail  the  news  with  delight.  Most  of  them  would 
say :  ' '  It 's  a  glorious  doctrine !  I  '11  spend  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  of  those  years  in  the 
pleasures  of  worldliness  and  sin."  This  scheme 
would  be  quickly  and  universally  adopted  if  men 
could  believe  it.  But  the  fact  is  that,  morally 
blind  and  stupid  as  human  nature  is,  this  unreas- 
onable proposition  outrages  their  moral  judgments. 
In  the  very  depths  of  their  moral  natures  they 
know  that  it  is  not  true!  How  any  man,  pro- 
fessing to  be  a  follower  of  the  Holy  Christ,  and 
knowing  the  weakness  of  human  nature,  can  be  a 
deliberate  party  to  this  un-Christlike  and  unscrip- 
tural  propaganda  is  more  than  we  can  make  out. 
Not  for  a  thousand  worlds  would  we  dare  to  invite 
God's  displeasure  by  such  an  unholy  act. 

Conclusion 

"We  do  not  think  it  necessary  to  pursue  Millen- 
nial Dawn  further.  We  have  challenged  every 
doctrine,  and  assailed  every  distinctive  feature  of 
the  scheme.  We  have  shown  plainly  how  untrue 
it  is  and  how  out  of  harmony  with  the  Word  of 
God.  That  is  enough.  The  "Plan"  has  put  itself 
before  the  world  in  six  volumes,  each  several  times 
larger  than  this,  and  in  pamphlets,  tracts,  and 
152 


PROBATION  AFTER  DEATH 

weekly  publications  now  for  years.  It  is  needless 
to  try  to  answer  them  all.  That  would  be  a  waste 
of  time.  There  is,  however,  not  much  to  answer, 
for  these  publications  are  everlasting  repetitions 
of  the  chief  features  of  the  scheme.  We  have  met 
the  issue  fairly  and  squarely,  and  shown  that  these 
doctrines  are  false.  When  we  have  shown  that 
its  denial  of  the  natural  immortality  of  the  soul 
is  not  true;  that  the  soul  does  not  "sleep  in  ob- 
livion" between  death  and  the  Resurrection;  that 
there  is  no  probation  after  death  provided  for 
anywhere  in  the  Word  of  God ;  there  is  not  to  be  a 
Millennium ;  that  Christ  has  never  proposed  to  set 
up  a  kingdom  on  earth  and  reign  in  it  for  a  thou- 
sand years;  that  this  Gospel  Age  is  one  of  pro- 
bation for  all  people ;  that  it  is  false  to  teach  that 
none  but  the  "little  flock"  can  be  saved  during  the 
present  era ;  that  now  is  the  acceptable  time  for  all 
men,  and  that  now  is  the  day  of  salvation — we 
feel  that  we  have  done  all  that  needs  to  be  done 
with  Millennial  Dawn.  If  we  have  exposed  the 
errors  of  these  doctrines  and  shown  that  they  are 
unscriptural  and  untrue,  we  need  not  waste  the 
time  of  our  readers  with  The  Divine  Plan  of  the 
Ages,  The  Great  Pyramid  of  Egypt,  Napoleon 
Bonaparte  in  Prophecy,  The  Time  of  Restitution, 
nor  Setting  the  Day  in  1914.  If  the  foundation 
is  rotten,  the  whole  scheme  of  Millennial  Dawn  will 
fall.  We  have  pointed  out  its  rotten  foundation, 
and  have  little  interest  in  the  rickety  structure 
reared  upon  it. 

153 


Date  Due 

9> 

